Suicides in the Baltic Countries, 1968–90

Abstract

Trends of male and female suicides in the Baltic countries - Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania - in the years 1968–90 were studied. As throughout the former USSR, suicide rates declined sharply from 1986, the year marking the onset of turbulent social change. During the “period of stagnation” from 1968 to 1984, the mean value of male suicide rates per 100,000 males were 55.7 in Estonia, 52.5 in Latvia and 51.7 in Lithuania. The figures for female suicide rates were 14.3, 14.3 and 10.4, respectively. Suicide rates remained consistently high in Estonia and Latvia, while in Lithuania the male suicide rate rose gradually from 33.0 to 61.3 and the female rate from 8.0 to 13.1, during the stagnation period. In conjunction with perestroika in the former USSR (including a restrictive alcohol policy and the first tentative steps towards democracy), annual male suicide rates per 100,000 in the years 1986–90 fell considerably below those in the stagnation period. Mean values of male suicide rates decreased by 26.6% in Estonia, 26.6% in Latvia and 14.4% in Lithuania in the period 1986–90 compared with the mean values for the period 1968–84. Female suicide rates were relatively stable and the male-female ratio was accordingly lower in 1986–90 (Estonia and Latvia 3.1, Lithuania 4.2) than in 1968–84 (Estonia 3.9, Latvia 3.7 and Lithuania 5.0).