Surveillance of Australian Suicidal Behaviour Using the Internet?

Recent reports have suggested that variations in the volume of Internet searches relating to suicide, and risk factors for suicide such as depression and divorce, are associated with population suicide rates [1,2]. Furthermore, search activity in relation to specifi c methods of suicide have been shown to mirror high profi le media reporting of an unusual method of suicide in the UK and Japan [3]. Seasonal variations in the volume of Internet searches relating to depression, mirroring seasonal fluctuations in the incidence of depression, have also been noted [4]. There is perhaps the potential to use trends in Internet searching relating to suicide as a kind of barometer of actual suicidal ideation and behaviour in a community [3], in the same way as it has been suggested it may be useful in identifying the onset of epidemics of infectious disease [5]. Readily available Internet resources may be a way of augmenting routinely collected sources of mortality, hospital admissions and primary care sector data (the availability of which is often lagged by a number of years) as part of a strategy of syndromic surveillance of levels of suicidal behaviour and psychological distress in communities.