‘Melancholy Magyars’ have world’s highest suicide rate

Press, 16 January 1986, Page 26

‘Melancholy Magyars’ have world’s highest suicide rate

NZPA-AP Budapest Hungary has the world’s highest suicide rate and it is growing alarmingly, in spite of an apparent decrease in the rate of suicide worldwide. Doctors and social workers say Hungary’s suicide rate has climbed steadily for 15 years, and they don’t know why. Five thousand Hungarians out of a population of 10.65 million killed themselves last year. In the cities, an overdose of sleeping pills is the most common method and in rural areas, hanging, according to Dr Andras Veer, assistant director of the National Nerve and Psychiatric Institute. “We wish it were a virus, like A.1.D.5.,” said Dr Veer in a recent interview. “It would be easier to find a cause, if it were something like that.” World Health Organisation statistics show the Hungarian suicide rate was 46 of 100,000 in 1984, compared with about 35 in 1969. While some other countries also documented increases, the

worldwide rate seems to have decreased in recent years, says the organisation. The rate over the last 15 years has dropped even in Finland, traditionally second to this Soviet bloc country. Finland remains second with about 25 suicides per 100,000 population now, compared with 28 about 15 years ago. By comparison, 17 per 100,000 Frenchmen kill themselves each year, and in Greece, which has one of the world’s lowest recorded rates, there are three suicides per 100,000. Hungarian experts have been trying to explain why so many of their compatriots kill themselves. For years, one school of thought has advanced the theory of the “melancholy Magyar.” Magyars, the original Hungarians who still form the ethnic majority, are inherently more likely to kill themselves because of an unexplained psychological quirk, according to this theory. Dr Veer said some facts appear to support this view. f ‘A fair amount of terri-

tory was detached from Hungary after World War I and World War II and in these territories the suicide ratio is close to Hungary’s,” he said. “These detached territories indicate that there is indeed some ethnological problem.”

Dr Veer also said more Magyars in Hungary kill themselves than Hungarians of other racial origins. The high rate among Finns also fits the picture, according to advocates of an ethnological link. They point out that the Finnish language most closely resembles Hungarian and the Finnish and Magyar races commonly are considered kindred. It is perhaps fitting that Hungary’s “Gloomy Sunday,” a song of the 1930 s espousing suicide, became the country’s greatest international hit. One of the most popular renditions was in the 1930 s at the Olympia Hall in Paris, where one band member after the other committed mock suicide. The English version of the song, made famous in the

1930 s by the American blues singer, Billie Holiday, in Paris, begins: "Gloomy Sunday, "With shadows I spend it all, "My heart and I have "Decided to end it all." The song’s composer, Rezsoe Seress, killed himself in 1968. While some researchers remain interested in the “melancholy Magyar” theory, Dr Veer said most now prefer to concentrate on more identifiable causes. Hungarians are among the world’s greatest consumers of alcohol. About 500,000, one in 20, are alcoholics, according to official statistics. While the World Health Organisation says it cannot confirm it, local experts see this group as the most suicide-prone. “The majority of those killing themselves are alcoholics,” Dr Veer said, “and even those who are not tend to drink a large quantity before attempting suicide.” While there is relatively

little drug abuse compared with alcoholism, about 50,000 Hungarians are considered chronic users and they are also more prone to suicide than non-addicts, according to Dr Veer. He said old Hungarians and relatively young ones insecure about the future are also high-risk groups. In spite of the gloomy statistics, Dr Veer sees signs of some progress in the attempt to at least contain the increase in suicides. He said more and more potentially suicidal people were getting counselling at a 24-hour crisis prevention centre set up in Budapest two years ago. There are plans to expand the 28-bed facility by 20 beds. At .tne outset, the centre dealt mostly with those who had at least one suicide attempt behind them, he said. “Now we are getting to the point where there is rough parity between those coming in who have not yet tried to kill themselves and those who have.”