London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
View report page
Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Hampstead 1954
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Hampstead Borough]
This page requires JavaScript
Table 4. Methods Used
| Table 4. Methods Used | |||
| Drugs | 34 | ||
| Barbiturate Poisoning | 23 | ||
| Aspirin | 8 | ||
| Methedrine | 1 | ||
| Carbromal | l | ||
| Cyanide | l | ||
| Coal Gas Poisoning | 30 | ||
| Hanging and Strangulation | 8 | ||
| Drowning | 2 | ||
| Self Inflicted Wounds | 5 | ||
| Cut Neck | 3 | ||
| Stabbed Chest | 1 | ||
| Shot Head | 1 | ||
| Violence Injuries | 9 | ||
| Fall from height | 5 | ||
| Fall under train | 3 | ||
| Fall under bus | 1 | ||
| Electrocution | l | ||
| 89 | |||
Various hypotheses have been put forward to account
for the excess of suicides in the Borough. It has been suggested
that it may be due to the population structure, but this seems
an unlikely explanation as the outstanding feature of the
population of Hampstead is the excess of females and it has already
been shown the females have a lower suicide rate than males.
Another explanation is that suicides are commoner in
students and that Hampstead with its boarding houses and hostels
has an above average student population. An analysis of the
occupation of those people who commit suicide (shown in Table 5)
only includes two students out of a total of 89, and therefore
this explanation of the excess is not tenable.
Hampstead undoubtedly has a higher proportion of its
population in social classes 1 and 2 and it is a feature of