Russel Armstrong left a note, according to Los Angeles County Chief Coroner Ed Winter. That may be unusual in these circumstances. In a 2011 study of more than 1,000 suicides in Australia, researchers at the University of Tasmania found that although only 33% of the victims left a note, people are going through divorces and other types of "interpersonal conflict "were more likely to leave a note behind. Finally, members of a divorcing couple are not alone in suffering. A large Canadian study published in May in the journal Psychiatry Research found that men who were children when their parents divorced were more than twice as likely to think about suicide than men whose parents stayed together. (For women, there was no link between parental divorce in childhood and suicidal ideation).
Fans of "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" is still absorbing the news that Russell Armstrong, the former husband of "housewife" Armstrong Taylor, hanged himself Monday night in an apparent suicide. Armstrong, 47 years old, had left the couple's home several months ago after it became clear that the marriage of six years could not be saved, and Taylor Armstrong filed for divorce last month.
Authorities are investigating the circumstances surrounding the death of Armstrong. His motives may become clear. But again and again, researchers have found a relationship between a change in marital status and suicide risk.
To begin an analysis of suicide rates in 18 industrialized countries (including the U.S.) between 1983 and 2007 found that an increase in divorce rates correlate with an increase in suicides. In fact, the divorce rate appears to have a greater impact on suicide rate of unemployment or the economy overall. "The fact that the increase in divorce rates are associated with increased suicide in men and women can be interpreted as showing that the stable social relations provide protection against suicide," the Austrian researchers report in the March Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.
And a study this year in crisis magazine found that 10.7% of suicide victims had experienced a change in marital status over the past five years, in comparison, only 5.6% of people in control group had changed their marital status. The study, conducted by researchers at the Institute of Public Health of the Republic of Slovenia, including data from more than 1,600 suicides in that country. (The researchers found that in addition to divorce, marriage and the widow who also increased the risk of suicide.)
In Taiwan, the researchers found that suicide rates increased along with the popularity of Google Search with the keyword "divorce." Other search terms related to the rate of divorce include "major depression" and "Complete Guide of suicide, "according to a July report in the Journal of Affective Disorders.
