(April 10, 2008 - Insidermedicine) It's easier to find web sites that encourage suicide and describe how to commit it than sites that offer help for those considering taking their own lives, according to research published in the British Medical Journal.

Here are some facts about suicide:

•    Worldwide, about one million people die from suicide every year. It is a leading cause of death in teens and young adults.

•    Most people who commit suicide are suffering from a mental illness, such as depression, bipolar disorder, or schizophrenia.

•    If you or anyone you know is considering suicide, get help from a doctor, mental health professional, suicide prevention hotline, or crisis center.

Researchers from the Universities of Bristol, Oxford, and Manchester replicated a typical Internet search by someone looking for information on suicide. They plugged 12 different search terms related to suicide into each of the four most popular search engines: Google, Yahoo, MSN, and Ask. They then analyzed the top ten sites from each search.

Overall, the searches uncovered 240 unique sites about suicide, just under half of which provided information about how to commit suicide. Nearly one-fifth of the hits as well as the top three most frequently occurring sites were for pages that promoted suicide. Only 13% of the sites were dedicated to suicide prevention and support, and only 12% actively discouraged suicide. Most of the sites -- even some of those dedicated to suicide prevention -- provided information on methods of suicide.

Today's research highlights how easy it is to obtain information on how to commit suicide on the Internet and how a surfer is more likely to come across sites that encourage suicide than those that offer support and help.

For Insidermedicine in Depth, I'm Dr. Susan Sharma.