Perinatal Origin of Eventual Self-Destructive Behavior

This paper summarizes results of three investigations: an ecological study
dealing with the epidemiology of self-destructive behavior in the United States (unpublished), a case-control
study of forensic victims in Stockholm,1 and preliminary results from an ongoing study of amphetamine addicts
in Stockholm.2 The results seem alarming. The revealed data suggest that obstetric methods should be
modified to prevent damages to future generations. ECOLOGICAL STUDY As is often the case in science, it
was an accidental discovery that led to the epidemiological study in the United States. During the development
of computer programs for investigating the epidemiology of certain somatic diseases, a most remarkable
regularity was observed in the rate of several diseases for each age cohort in each state.Unexpectedly, the
same regularity was found for rates of suicides and for female rates of alcoholism as reflected by death rates for
cirrhosis of the liver. Each age cohort in each state is characterized by a certain risk to commit suicide. This risk
is fairly constant for cohorts in each state in relation to other age cohorts in the same state, and in relation to the
same age cohort in other states. This is illustrated in Figure 1. The relative mortality rates are shown for an age
cohort born in the late 1910’s at two periods 20 years apart. Hence, the victims were born during essentially the
same period, but committed the suicide 1937 to 1940 and 1956 to 1960. The similarity is striking. Other age
cohorts have different geographic distributions.