A comparison of injury date and death date in 42,698 suicides.

The date of death was compared with the date of injury (the onset of the suicidal act) for 42,698 California suicides, 1973-85. Findings revealed 92.6 per cent of all California suicides occurred within one day of the injury date. Graphs of daily suicides by injury date and by death date displayed essentially identical patterns around the holidays, by date of the week, and after publicized suicide stories. These findings suggest that the difference between date of death and date of injury need not be taken into consideration in the analysis of temporal fluctuations, as was previously supposed.