An Italian-born psychiatrist at the institute, which is based at Griffith University in Brisbane, Prof De Leo gave a wide-ranging, and at times witty, talk on the epidemiology of youth suicide in Dunedin yesterday.
He was addressing about 200 people at the Paediatric Society of New Zealand's 65th annual scientific meeting, at the Dunedin Centre.
Prof De Leo said there was a low youth suicide rate in Italy and joked that children in that country were able to remain in the family home until the age of 45.
He also noted that although Italy and other Mediterranean countries had much lower youth suicide rates than New Zealand, among older age groups New Zealanders actually had a relatively low comparative rate.
Suicide was a ''tragic loss of human potentialities with dreadful repercussions on surviving individuals'' and on society as a whole. After decades of concerning increases, suicide rates among young people had recently shown some declining trends in some western and non-western countries, he said.
Ministry of Health figures, published last year, show that New Zealand's overall male suicide rate in 2009 was in the middle of OECD countries.
New Zealand males had the 16th highest rate, Australia 23rd and Italy 28th, among such countries.
New Zealand had the highest suicide rate for males aged 15-24 years among OECD countries in 2009, narrowly ahead of Estonia, with Australia 19th.
And New Zealand females were fifth in the same age group, with Australia 14th.
Prof De Leo, who grew up in Italy and has lived in Australia for the past 15 years, later commented that there were clearly benefits to spending one's early life in Italy and the Mediterranean and spending later life in countries like Australia and New Zealand.
Prof De Leo said in an interview that reducing the suicide rate was highly interdisciplinary and involved many factors.
It was a bad mistake to think of suicide only in terms of mental health, although that was clearly one factor.
Although he had joked about some Italian youngsters spending decades within their extended families, that high level of support and connectedness was, in fact, crucial in helping keep the Italian youth suicide risk down.
It was difficult to generalise, but people who were socially isolated and unsupported, and poor and socially deprived, were among those at higher risk, he said.
Where to get help
• Suicide Crisis Helpline 0508 828 865
• Lifeline 0800 543 354
• Depression Helpline (8am-midnight) 0800 111 757
• Healthline 0800 611 116Samaritans 0800 211 211
• Youthline 0800 376 633, free text 234 email talk@youthline.co.nz
• Kidsline (aimed at children up to 14; 4pm-6pm weekdays) 0800 54 37 540800
• What's Up (1pm-11pm) 0800 942 8787
All helplines are 24/7 unless otherwise noted.
