The Effects of Lunar Phases and Zodiac Signs on Recurrent Youth Suicide Attempts-Experience of University Hospital

Abstract

Objective: To determine the clinical and demographical features of recurrent youth suicide and identity possible risk factors. Methods: In this study, all patients admitted to our paediatric emergency department with adolescent suicide attempts, from the dates of January 2011 and September 2014, were analysed with the goal to identify the risk factors for reoccurring suicide and clinical outcomes retrospectively. Results: This study included 417 adolescents, 81 men and 336 women with an average age of 15.55 +/- 1.86 years. The most common zodiac sign of the patients was Capricorn (48 patients) and Aquarius (44 patients). According to the lunar cycle, 39 (9.4%) attempted suicide during full moon and 34 (8.2%) during the new moon cycle. It has been established that most suicide attempts occurred while being alone (80.2%) and inside the house (90.6%) and the most preferred method is combined drug ingestion (51.0%). The recurrent suicide attempt rate is 13.2%. While determining that attempting the suicide alone is a significant factor in recurrent suicide, psychotropic drug intake was found to have a protective effect. The most diagnosed psychiatric disorder in cases of recurrent suicide and first-time suicide attempts was depression (49.1% and 8.6% respectively). Conclusion: Triggering risk factors such as lunar cycle or zodiac sign do not have an effect on recurrent suicide attempts. A wide participation in clinical studies is necessary to determine the real effect of these risk factors.