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Deliberate self poisoning – Nottingham Forest Football Club and F.A. Cup defeat

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 June 2014

Mark D Steels
Mark D Steels*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University Hospital, Nottingham, NG7 2UH, England
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Abstract

Objective: To investigate the relationship between disappointment in a community and deliberate self poisoning. Method: The Accident and Emergency department records of Nottingham's University Hospital were scrutinised for cases of deliberate self poisoning presenting during the weekend of Nottingham Forest's F.A. Cup Final defeat in 1991 and the weekend of their subsequent failure at the quarter-final stage in 1992. Rates of deliberate self poisoning during these periods of intense expectation and disappointment in Nottingham were compared to the weekends either side of these important football matches. Results: Nottingham Forest's defeat in the F.A. Cup Final in 1991 and in the quarterfinals a year later was associated with a short-term excess of cases of deliberate self poisoning in Nottingham. This was statistically significant following the cup final (p<0.01) but not so after only reaching the last eight (p=0.057). Conclusion: The repeatability of these findings supports the hypothesis that a sudden disappointment experienced through an entire community may prove one stress too many for some vulnerable members of that community.

Keywords

Attempted suicideOverdosePsychological stressFootball
Type
Clinical and Brief Reports
Information
Irish Journal of Psychological Medicine , Volume 11 , Issue 2 , June 1994 , pp. 76 - 78
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1994

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