Thanksgiving & Christmas, the Least Depressing Holidays

For Labor Day, I referenced an article regarding the temporal patterns of pediatric traumatic injury – showing Labor Day, above all, was the most dangerous of holidays.

However, conversely, Thanksgiving may have one of the lowest rates of self-injury of all the major holidays.  These authors reviewed the rates of calls to poison control for suspected suicide attempts and found, compared with control days, essentially only New Year’s Day had consistently, and statistically, increased incidence of suicide attempts by poison.  In contrast, Independence Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas were consistently, and statistically, lower than the control days.  Other major holidays were, essentially, a wash.

So, enjoy the protective effect against self-harm of this holiday season!

“Variation in Suicide Occurrence by Day and during Major American Holidays”
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24462023