Asia should brace for an increase in suicides with the global financial crisis, a conference was told yesterday.
Of 849,000 suicides worldwide in 2006, about 65 per cent occurred in Asia, World Health Organisation regional director Shigeru Omi said.
Money problems played a more important role in Asia than in the United States. 'I hope this current financial crisis will not result in further increases in suicides,' Dr Omi said.
Brian Mishara, president of the International Association for Suicide Prevention, said many countries had seen decreasing numbers of suicides in recent years but the global meltdown could reverse that.
'Now the concern is what will happen [with the suicide rates]. It appears there will be a world economic crisis and we have seen an association between unemployment and suicide,' he said.
Professor Mishara, of the University of Quebec at Montreal, said increased suicide rates 'are not inevitable' because countries could do more to prevent them and people needed to be made more aware of resources available.