Platt S
Br Med J (Clin Res Ed). 1987 Apr 11;294(6577):954-7. doi: 10.1136/bmj.294.6577.954.
In a study designed to evaluate the behavioural impact of a fictional parasuicide--namely, Angie's overdose on the popular television soap opera EastEnders--information about cases of deliberate overdose treated in accident and emergency departments in 63 hospitals throughout Britain was obtained for the week after the televised overdose (experimental period) and the week before the overdose (control period). After adjusting for trends in the equivalent weeks in a control year (1985) the increase in the cases of parasuicide treated by hospitals during the experimental week was not found to be significant. A significant increase (31%) was found among people aged greater than or less than 45, but this is not thought to be reliable. The increase among women alone (21%) was significant with a one tailed test. Contrary to expectations there was a positive association between trends in overdose and distance from London--that is, the further the distance of the region from London the greater the increase in cases of overdose during the experimental period--and a negative association between trends in overdose and viewing figures--that is, the higher the viewing figure the less the impact on the incidence of overdoses. These findings do not lend support to the claim that there was a strong imitation effect after this televised parasuicide.
在一项旨在评估虚构的准自杀行为（即安杰在热门电视肥皂剧《东区人》中过量服药）的行为影响的研究中，获取了全英国63家医院急诊科在电视播出过量服药情节后的一周（实验期）以及播出前一周（对照期）治疗的故意过量服药病例信息。在对对照年（1985年）同期的趋势进行调整后，未发现实验周期间医院治疗的准自杀病例数有显著增加。在45岁以上或以下人群中发现了显著增加（31%），但这被认为不可靠。单尾检验显示，仅女性中的增加（21%）具有显著性。与预期相反，过量服药趋势与距伦敦的距离之间存在正相关——即该地区距伦敦越远，实验期内过量服药病例增加越多——而过量服药趋势与收视率之间存在负相关——即收视率越高，对过量服药发生率的影响越小。这些发现不支持在这次电视播出的准自杀行为后存在强烈模仿效应的说法。
