Last Updated: 2008-04-10 19:01:16 -0400 (Reuters Health)

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – A search of the Internet for information about suicide reveals that people are more likely to come across sites supporting, rather than discouraging this act.

Previous research has indicated that television and media reports influence attitudes toward suicide, particularly with regard to the methods used, but whether the same holds true with the Internet was unclear.

To investigate, Dr. Lucy Biddle, from the University of Bristol, UK, and colleagues conducted searchs on Google, Yahoo, MSN, and Ask using 12 simple terms in an effort to recreate what an individual looking for suicide information might encounter. The first 10 sites from each search were included in the analysis, resulting in a total of 480 hits.

Overall, 240 different sites were identified and nearly half provided information about suicide methods. Ninety of the sites were dedicated to the topic of suicide, and about half of these encouraged the practice.

By contrast, 62 sites (13%) were geared toward preventing suicide and 59 sites (12%) actively discouraged the practice. About one fifth of the support and prevention sites included information on methods of suicide.

Google and Yahoo ranked highest for dedicated suicide sites, while MSN was highest for prevention or support sites.

The three top hits across all the search engines were pro-suicide. The fourth site was Wikipedia.

Filtering software and self-regulation by Internet providers are the principal ways to combat pro-suicide sites, the authors note. Still, "efforts to remove some of the most detailed technical descriptions of methods seem to be easily circumvented," they note.

The investigators conclude another, possibly better, approach would be for service providers to use website optimization strategies so that a person searching for suicide information is more likely to encounter sites discouraging, rather than promoting the practice.

BMJ 2008;336:800-802.

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