Suicide in Lithuania

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Suicide in Lithuania has become a significant national social issue due its high rate.^[1][2]

Causes

Social and financial problems that exist in Lithuania are a major cause behind such high rate of suicides. According to Onute Davidoniene, director of the State Mental Health Center, a main reason behind the dramatic rise in suicides over the last decade is the economic and social transition. This can also be linked to the Russian economic crisis of 1998 whose effect on Lithuania was prolonging the phenomenon.^[3]

Davidoniene also stressed the problem of suicide in the rural areas and mentioned the clear correlation with alcohol: "Around 80 percent of suicides are alcohol-related, and we have our biggest problems with that in the countryside. In rural areas, everybody drinks."^[3]

Statistics

Lithuania has one of the highest suicide rates in the world. Statistics presented by Dainius Puras, a leading psychiatrist and co-author of Lithuania's emergency suicide bill, show that over 1500 people commit suicide in Lithuania per year.^[1] According to a report of the World Health Organization 34 of every 100,000 people in Lithuania kill themselves.^[2] Puras' remark on such a high rate of suicide was that "it's an epidemic. It's not simply suicide, but an infectious disease that kills..."^[1]

Notable Lithuanians who committed suicide

• Romas Kalanta, self-immolation protesting Soviet regime in Lithuania
• Saulius Mykolaitis, director, actor, suicide by hanging
• Theodor Grotthuss, chemist
• Vytautas Šapranauskas, actor, comedian and TV presenter, suicide by hanging
• Vytautas Vičiulis, painter, set himself ablaze
• Yitzhak Wittenberg, Jewish resistance fighter, swallowing poison

See also

• List of countries by suicide rate

References