The bi-seasonal incidence of some suicides. Experience from Finland by marital status, 1961-1976.

The seasonal variation in suicides in Finland is examined by marital status using the individual records for all suicides committed in 1961-1976 and periodic regression analysis. Suicides were usually most frequent in spring or summer, but there was an exceptional secondary concentration of suicides in the autumn period among married and widowed females, which makes the monthly pattern bimodal. Suicides among divorced and widowed males aged 15-44 years showed a unimodal variation with the peak in autumn. While an influence from certain social factors might be entertained, the reasons for the seasonal variation in suicides in general and for this anomalous bimodality in particular remain unknown.