Suicide among College Students **

Suicide is more common among college students than many people realize. A recent survey of the causes of death of 209 Yale University students from 1920 to 1955 revealed the following most common causes of death: (i) accidents-43.8 per cent; (ii) suicide-12 per cent; (iii) heart and circulatory diseases-7.7 per cent; (iv) pneumonia-7.2 per cent; and (v) central nervous system infections-6.3 per cent.' Diehl and Shepard! made a similar study of 327 deaths among college students from nine universities during the ten-year period from 1925 to 1935. They found the following leading causes of death: (i) accidents-26.3 per cent; (ii) heart and circulatory diseases-10.1 per cent; and (iii) suicide-8.0 per cent. One may conclude from these two studies that suicides account for 8 to 12 per cent of all deaths among college students. It has been estimated that more than 20,000 people commit suicide in the United States each year.' Dublin' reported the suicide rate for the United States in 1930, 15.6 per 100,000 living, occupies a middle position among the rates of countries for which the records are available. Collins et al.' found suicide the fifth most common cause of death in the white population of the United States, for the age group from 15-24, for 1950. A review of the available literature failed to provide any reliable statistics on the incidence of suicide among college students. It is commonly believed that the incidence of suicide is higher among college students than among the noncollege population in the same age group. This opinion was recently expressed by Mr. T. R. Henn, Senior Tutor of St. Catherine's College, Cambridge, England when he addressed the World Conference on Medical Education. Mr. Henn stated: