The suicide rate in Northern Ireland has decreased slightly in the last five years.
Figures from the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety show the number has ranged from 138 in 1994 to 121 in 1999.
Mr Barry McGale, suicide awareness co-ordinator with the Western Health and Social Services Board (WHSSB), says the true figures are likely to have been higher. "Many deaths found by coroners to be of undetermined cause bear many of the hallmarks of suicide, and a clearer picture is achieved by adding those to the suicide figure," he said. In 1999, 42 undetermined deaths were recorded in the North.
The 121 suicides recorded in 1999 comprised 103 men and 18 women. Males under 35 accounted for just over half the deaths.
A conference by the Community Practitioners and Health Visitors' Association (CPHVA) in Co Antrim heard that since 1982 the suicide rate in men between 15 and 24 had risen by more than 80 per cent.
Prof Noel Sheehy of Queen's University Psychology Department said the same psychological and social factors prevailed among victims in the North and the Republic. "The only variation in the North is the lethality of the methods used, and this is because often guns are more readily available," he said.
Research indicates that, on average, more suicides occur in rural areas than in urban centres in Northern Ireland.