Suicide in Artists: National Epidemiology

177

suicide, and 0=death by all other causes. The focus of study 3 is to ascertain the extent to which persons in high-risk art occupations and persons in low risk artistic occupations are at danger of suicide relative to other occupational groups. A set of socio-demographic control variables is incorporated into the analysis. These controls are the same as in Study 2.

RESULTS

Study 1: The Distribution of Suicide by Subtypes of Artists Table 2 presents the results regarding suicide risk for each of the nine categories of

artistic occupations. For each occupation the risk of suicide is given for each of the eight available years. The number of suicides is provided in the first row, the number of deaths for artists from all other causes is provided in the second row of data. In the third row the percentage of artist deaths that were from suicide is given. The percentages in the third row marked with an asterisk are significantly different from the percentage of the population of deaths that were suicides in that year. The Chi Square test was used as a test statistic.

Actors

During 1985-1992, 843 actors died. Of these there were 33 suicides. The suicides represented 3.9% of all deaths involving actors. For the general population of all deaths analyzed for this time frame, 1.5% were suicides. In five years (1985,1986, 1987, 1990, and 1992) the percentage of actors who died of suicide was significantly greater than the percent of the general population dying from suicide. Since actors have a significantly higher incidence of suicide than the general population most of the time, they meet the studys criterion for a high-risk artistic group. The peak year in actor suicide was 1990 where 7.3% of deaths involving actors were suicides. This is nearly five times the national percentage for the general population. Authors

During the eight-year period, 1,284 authors died. Of these, 58 or 4.5% were suicides. This is three times the expected percentage (1.5% for the general US population). In six years the percentage of authors dying through suicide was significantly greater than the percentage of the general population dying through suicide. The exceptions were 1985 and 1987. Authors qualify as a high-risk group.

Dancers

During the 1985-1992 period, 351 dancers passed away. Dancers tend to be very young, so it is less likely for them to die through suicide. In addition, there is an artistic expectation that dancers will retire early due to the physical requirements of the profession (as in ballet) (Menger, 1999). There are relatively few persons employed as dancers. Dancing is the least common of the nine artistic specialty groups. Only 8 of the 351 deaths involving dancers were suicides (2.3%). In only one year (1989) was the percentage of dancers dying of suicide significantly greater than that for the general population.

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Steven Stack 178

Table 2. The distribution of suicides and deaths by artistic specializations by Year, 1985-1992

Artist Sub Type 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 All

Years Actor suicides 6 4 5 0 3 8 2 5 33 Actor deaths 61 78 89 93 122 109 142 149 843 % suicides 6.6* 5.1* 5.6* 0 2.5 7.3* 1.4 3.4* 3.91 Author suicides 3 4 5 6 9 9 12 10 58 Author deaths 97 103 166 150 156 196 210 206 1284 % suicides 3.1 3.9* 3.0 4.0* 5.8* 4.6* 5.7* 4.9* 4.52 Dancer suicides 0 0 1 2 1 2 1 1 8 Dancer deaths 33 26 31 37 43 58 61 62 351 % suicides 0 0 1.2 5.4* 2.3 3.4 1.6 1.6 2.27 Designers suicides

11 4 12 19 19 17 25 18 125

Designer deaths 728 882 933 1170 1245 1205 1211 1323 8697 % suicides 1.5 1.4 1.3 1.6 1.5 1.4 2.1* 1.4 1.4 Musician suicides

5 12 14 14 17 18 12 21 113

Musician deaths

432 509 627 748 726 717 739 758 5256

% suicides 1.2 2.4 2.2 1.9 2.3* 2.5* 1.6 2.8* 2.14 Painters, sculptors, craft artists, print makers suicides

13 27 17 14 30 34 26 16 177

Painters et al deaths

375 498 520 618 800 731 840 827 5209

% suicides 3.5* 5.4* 3.3* 2.3* 3.8* 4.7* 3.1* 1.9 3.39 Photographers suicides

6 4 12 9 8 12 8 14 73

All deaths 221 262 299 339 356 372 395 393 2637 % suicides 2.7 1.5 4.0* 2.7* 2.2 3.2* 2.0 3.6* 2.8 Technical writers suicides

0 0 2 0 1 2 2 2 9

All deaths 35 39 47 73 62 60 75 77 468 % suicides 0 0 4.3 0 1.65 3.3 2.7 2.6% 1.9 Artists nec suicides

2 5 5 6 6 6 7 7 44

All deaths 150 138 146 186 197 191 234 211 1453 % suicides 1.3 3.6* 3.4* 3.2* 3.0* 3.1* 3.0* 3.3* 3.0 All artists suicides

44 68 73 70 94 108 95 94 646

All artist deaths 2132 2535 2858 3414 3707 3639 3907 4006 26198

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Suicide in Artists: National Epidemiology

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% suicides 2.1* 2.7* 2.6* 2.1* 2.5* 3.0* 2.4* 2.3* 2.46 Percent of deaths of the general population that are suicides

1.5 1.5 1.6 1.4 1.5 1.5 1.5 1.5 1.5

All deaths in 1000s

461 514 573 631 610 612 622 623 4646

* The difference between the proportion of artist deaths from suicide and that of the non-artist population (1.5%) is statistically significant, p < .05, one-tailed chi square test.

Designers Of the 8,697 deaths of designers, only 125 or 1.4% were from suicide. In only one year of

eight (1991) was the percentage of designer deaths from suicide significantly greater than the percent of deaths that were suicides for the US population (2.1% vs. 1.5%).

Musicians

A total of 2.1% of the musicians who died over the eight-year period were suicides. There were only three years, however, where the percentage of suicides for musician deaths was significantly greater than that for the general population (1989, 1990, and 1992). They did not meet the criterion for a high-risk artistic occupation.

Painters, Sculptors, Crafts Artists, and Print Makers

Of the 5,209 deaths in this group, 177 were suicides. In nearly all years this group had a percentage of suicides significantly higher than that for the general population. The only exception was 1992. They qualify for a high-risk artistic occupational group. Unfortunately, we are not able to calculate suicide risk for categories within this group (e.g., sculptors).

Photographers

Of the 2,637 who died during the 1985-1992 period, 73 or 2.8% died from suicide. Photographers have received little attention in suicidology. Kevin Carter, for example, received the Pulitzer Prize for his photo of an extremely weak starving Sudanese child being stalked by a hungry vulture. The images of this and many other vivid memories of killings, corpses and assorted human suffering in the Sudan haunted him and he took his own life three months after receiving the Pulitzer (Doherty, 2006). In half of the years the suicide risk for photographers was significantly greater than that of the general population.

Technical Writers

A total of 9 of the 468 deaths of technical writers were suicides (1.9%). The percentage of suicides was never significantly greater than that of the general population.

Artists, Performers and Related Workers not elsewhere Classified

This group, which would include comedians, contributed 1,453 deaths. Of these 44 or 3.0% were suicides. In seven of eight years the percent of suicides was greater than the mean for the general population (mean 1.5%, range 1.4-1.6%). This group qualifies as a high risk artistic occupational group.

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All Artists In all, 646 of the 26,198 deaths of artists were from suicide. Among artists, the

percentage of deaths that were suicides was significantly greater than that for the general population in all eight years. However, as we have seen, some artist groups were more apt to have significantly elevated suicide risk than others. The high-risk groups were actors, authors, painters, sculptors, crafts, and printmakers, and artists not elsewhere classified. The low-risk groups are comprised of dancers, designers, musicians, photographers, and technical writers.

The data from Table 2 for the census year 1990 were used to calculate estimated numbers of suicides for each of the nine categories of artists. In addition suicide rates for the nine classifications of artists were calculated. These estimates are provided in Table 3. Rates were calculated using the following methodology. A total of 611,940 deaths had data on occupation of the deceased. A total of 2,151,890 persons died in 1990. Hence, we have occupational data on 28.4% of the persons who died in 1990. Our estimate of the actual number of persons who died in an occupation would be the number based on the death registration area of 21 states divided by 0.284. For example, we found that 8 actors completed suicide in 1990 in the 21 states. For all fifty states the estimated number of actors would be 8 actors divided by 0.284 = 28 actor suicides. In 1990 there were 109,573 actors in the labor force (US Bureau of the Census 1992:3). The suicide rate for actors that year is, therefore, estimated to be 33.4. This is nearly three times the suicide rate of the general population. Estimated rates for subcategories of artists range from a low of 9.4 for technical writers to a high of 56.4 for the category of painters, sculptors, craft artists, and artist printmakers. Overall, artists had a suicide rate of 25.3.

Table 3. Suicide rates by occupation in 1990

Occupation Number of suicides

in occupation (estimated) 1990

Number of persons in occupation in 1990

Estimated suicide rate

Authors 32 105,730 30.7 Actors 28 109,573 33.4 Dancers 7 21,913 31.9 Designers 60 596,802 10.1 Musicians 63 148,020 42.6 Painters, Sculptors, Craft Artists, & Artist Printmakers

120 212,762 56.4

Photographers 42 143,520 29.3

Technical Writers 7 74,292 9.4 Artist, Performers, & Related Workers, nec.

21 93,421 22.4

All Artists 380 1,506,033 25.3

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