National Study Finds Highest Rate Of Suicide On Wednesdays

By ARIELLE LEVIN BECKER

The Hartford Courant

July 11, 2009

Nearly a quarter of suicides in the U.S. occur on Wednesdays, about twice as many as almost every other day of the week, a new study has found.

The study, published in the journal Social Psychiatry & Psychiatric Epidemiology, contradicts earlier findings that suicides are more common on Mondays and left experts puzzling over what may be behind Wednesday's grim distinction.

Is it something about the middle of the week? Job stresses piling up, potentially overwhelming people who already see their problems as insurmountable?

"It may be just that it feels like there's no way out on Wednesday, [it's] too long to wait for the weekend," said Theodore Mucha, medical director at the Institute of Living at Hartford Hospital. Like other experts, he cautioned that his explanation was just a guess.

Researchers Augustine J. Kposowa and Stephanie D'Auria at the University of California, Riverside, examined data from U.S. death records from 2000 to 2004, focusing on adult suicides.

They found that 24.6 percent of suicides occurred on Wednesdays. The next-highest rates were 14.4 percent on Saturdays and 14.3 percent on Mondays. The fewest suicides occurred on Thursdays — 11.1 percent.

Kposowa and D'Auria also found that more suicides occurred in summer and spring than in fall or winter, contrasting with traditional thinking that winter months bring more risk of suicide.

Other parts of the study were consistent with previous research, showing that men are more likely to take their lives than women, and people who are divorced, white, educated or living in non-metropolitan areas have a higher risk of suicide.

The day of the week findings represent something new.

"This really does tell us something different," said Nina Heller, a social work professor at the University of Connecticut. "What it doesn't yet tell us is the why of that."

Heller said she had been "scratching my brain" since learning of the study, trying to think of a reason for the Wednesday peak in suicides. Maybe, she said, people who are already suffering from a mental illness and struggling to get through the week see Wednesday as a halfway point. "Perhaps they can't push any further," she said.

People who take their own lives often have lost perspective, becoming so despondent they lose track of things that might help them get through the day, said Charles Atkins, attending psychiatrist at Waterbury Hospital.

"One of the obvious speculations about Wednesday is that it's work-related, that people have become so caught up in the stress of the work week that whatever it is that's going on or is on their plate seems unsurmountable and suicide seems like a way out," he said.

Other national studies have indicated that working Americans typically list their jobs as their top source of stress, which Atkins said may lend weight to the idea that the Wednesday suicide peak could be related to the work week.

Kposowa also pointed to workplace stress as a potential explanation and believes changes in Americans' work and family life may be behind the shift in suicide's concentration from Mondays to Wednesdays.

Increased economic competition worldwide has threatened job security for many workers, heightening stress, frustration and even feelings of betrayal, said Kposowa, a sociology professor. "Individuals work harder and harder, but seem to be losing ground; they have little or nothing to show for their labor — especially among those who depend on others for wages," he wrote in an e-mail. "It is highly likely that the middle of the week (represented by Wednesday) is when these stressors and feelings of hopelessness are at their highest."

People may have once viewed Wednesday as the day you got over in order to look forward to a relaxed weekend, he said. But perhaps many Americans now see the next weekend as too far away.

Kposowa suggested that suicide prevention hot lines examine which days of the week call volumes are highest and consider placing more staff on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Mondays. Mental health workers might also consider scheduling more patient appointments on Wednesdays, he said.

Several mental health workers said they had not noticed a link between Wednesdays and an increased risk of suicide. More than 25,000 people kill themselves in the U.S. each year, an average of slightly more than one per day in each state, so trends that might be apparent from thousands of cases would not likely be noticed by individual mental health workers or programs.

A Courant analysis of Connecticut figures showed a different day distribution: from 2001 to 2004, no day stood out as sharply as Wednesday did in the national study. Most suicides — 16.7 percent — occurred on Tuesday, while 16.4 percent occurred on Monday and 14.5 percent on Wednesday. Thursday had the lowest occurrence, 12.1 percent. The data showed 966 adult suicides, a small fraction of the 131,636 in the national sample.

Seasonal suicide variations in Connecticut did reflect the national findings, with most occurring in summer and spring and fewer in winter and fall.

The seasonal figures contradict previous findings, but they didn't surprise Michael Levinson, director of clinical services at the Capitol Region Mental Health Center. He works nights in an emergency room and has gotten used to seeing more psychiatric emergencies in the spring.

"We always sort of look forward to spring gritting our teeth," he said.

While traditional thinking has focused on winter, with its cold weather and lack of sunlight, as a more common season for suicide, Levinson has a theory about why it may not be so: People think it's normal to be depressed in the winter. "Spring is the time of year when people are supposed to be rejuvenated and outside and enjoying themselves, and if you're not, it makes you feel comparatively worse than everybody else, which may make you feel more hopeless," he said.

Courant staff writer Matthew Kauffman contributed to this story.

The United Way's hotline for suicide prevention is available 24 hours a day and can be reached by dialing 2-1-1 The Capitol Region Mental Health Center's mobile crisis team, which serves the Hartford area, can be reached at 860-297-0999

Dirty job gets done

By HANK DANISZEWSKI

Ron Thomas of Canadian Crime and Trauma Scene Cleanup and his two employees clean up after crime, suicides, accidents or natural deaths. (Morris Lamont, Sun Media)
After the ambulance, police and media leave a violent crime scene, someone has to clean up the bloody mess.

That would be Ron Thomas, owner of Canadian Crime and Trauma Scene Cleanup.

Based in London, Thomas and his two employees go all over Southwestern Ontario cleaning up after crime, suicides, accidents or natural deaths that go undiscovered for some time.

Last week, he was called by police in Woodstock to clean up the home of the parents of Thomas Rafferty, who was charged in the murder of eight-year-old Victoria (Tori) Stafford.

Thomas tidied up and cleaned all the fingerprint dust after the police investigators were through.

The company also does a lot of hoarding cases -- people who die or move away, leaving piles of rotting debris and garbage in their homes.

Thomas said any dried blood or human tissue left at a crime scene carries the risk of disease and infection and is treated as a biohazard.

"You don't know who you are cleaning up for. It has to be treated like toxic material," he said.

In the most serious cases, he and his crew don biohazard suits and respirators. Waste from a contaminated scene usually has to be incinerated.

Thomas launched the company in 2006 as a spinoff of S.A. Thomas Dyna-Build, a flood and fire restoration business run by his brother.

He and his crew went to Ohio to get training and certification from the American Bio-Recovery Association.

Thomas, who has to document all his work to satisfy provincial safety and environment officials, said careful cleanup allows a house or vehicle to be usable again. That puts an end to the urban myth about the new Cadillac selling dirt-cheap because a dead body was found inside.

Thomas has a hydroxyl cleaner and disinfectant generator that can neutralize all foul-smelling molecules.

He said it's often a grim business that many couldn't handle

"I don't know if you ever get used to it. But nothing surprises me any more," he said.

Thomas said black humour becomes a coping mechanism, as it often is for police and health professionals.

"You do it behind the scenes. It helps you not to think about the seriousness of the situation."

Over the years he has collected many unusual tales.

There was the dim-witted criminal who smashed into an ATM machine and had his hand mangled when he reached into the machinery. Thomas was called in to clean up the blood and disinfect the machine.

Then there was the nice, neat luxury home where the master bedroom and kitchen were off-limits to the professional cleaners. Thomas was called in after the elderly owner moved out. He carted 810 wine bottles and mounds of cigarette butts out of the bedroom and found the fridge stuffed with rotting food.

Thomas's services don't come cheap. He charges about $175 an hour, which he says is the going rate.

He said cleaning up the scene of a tragedy can be hazardous both physically and mentally and should be left to professionals.

"There are some things you should not see, especially if it involves a loved one. Some people try it and call us halfway through," he said.

Hank Daniszewski is a Free Press business reporter. hank.daniszewski@sunmedia.ca