International Journal of Emergency Mental Health and Human Resilience
Open Access

Short Communication

Epidemiological Characteristics of Disaster-related Suicides in the 34 Years since the Great East Japan Earthquake

Ken Inoue^1*, Haruo Takeshita², Yoshikazu Takinami³, Masaharu Hoshi⁴, Yoshihiro Noso⁵, Nobuo Takeichi⁶, Junko Fujihara², Kaori Kimura-Kataoka², Yasuyuki Fujita⁶, Rei Wake⁷, Tsuyoshi Miyaoka⁷, Satoko Ezoe⁸, Jun Horiguchi⁷, Yuji Okazaki^9,10

¹Department of Public Health, Gunma University Graduate School of Medicine, Gunma, Japan

²Department of Legal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Shimane University, Shimane, Japan

³Department of Emergency and Critical Care Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Shimane University, Shimane, Japan

⁴Hiroshima University, Hiroshima, Japan

⁵Department of General Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Shimane University, Shimane, Japan

⁶Faculty of Medicine, Shimane University, Shimane, Japan

⁷Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Shimane University, Shimane, Japan

⁸Shimane University Health Service Center Izumo, Shimane, Japan

⁹Michinoo Hospital, Nagasaki, Japan

¹⁰Tokyo Metropolitan Matsuzawa Hospital, Tokyo, Japan

*Corresponding Author:

Ken Inoue
Department of Public Health
Gunma University Graduate School of Medicine
Gunma, Japan
E-mail: ke-inoue@med.shimane-u.ac.jp

The Great East Japan Earthquake struck Japan with a magnitude of 9.0 at 2:46 PM on March 11, 2011. Five years have passed since the earthquake and subsequent tsunami struck, but the mental and physical care of the victims, the livelihoods of those affected, and the economic impact of the disaster continue to cause social concern (Orui, Harada, & Hayashi, 2014; Tokuzu, Ouchi, Kikuchi & Konno, et al., 2015; Yabuki, Ouchi, Kikuchi & Konno, 2015; Hara, 2015). Over the past few years, research has examined the effects of the disaster on the cognitive function of the elderly (Ishiki et al., 2016), and one study suggested that oxidative stress may be associated with disaster-related hypertension (DRH) in individuals exhibiting effects of the Great East Japan Earthquake (Shiraishi et al., 2016).