A massive rise in the number of young men and those in early middle age who have taken their own lives has sustained Scotland's unenviable reputation as one of Europe's suicide blackspots.

Figures published by the Scottish Public Health Observatory showed that last year 620 men and 218 women killed themselves. Only Poland and Finland have higher rates. Glasgow and the Highlands suffered the most and in both regions men between the ages of 15 and 44 were the most vulnerable group.

Stephen Platt, director of the Research Unit in Health, Behaviour and Change at the University of Edinburgh said he was reluctant to speak of a generalised “crisis of masculinity”. Instead he said the strongest correlation was between suicide and poverty.

“Suicide is most manifest among people who are likely to have no educational qualification, live in areas of socio-economic deprivation and who are more likely to be affected by long-term unemployment. ‘Social deprivation' may sound like jargon, but it is a term which encapsulates the notion that this is more than just financial poverty - this a poverty in many aspects of life,” Professor Platt said.

Higher suicide rates among disadvantaged men mirrored other social trends. The low levels of academic achievement among boys resulted in higher levels of functional illiteracy and innumeracy among male school leavers from deprived backgrounds, he said. These factors, combined with dramatic changes in the labour market over a generation and the destruction of the idea of a “job for life” among working class males, had increased the sense of hopelessness that led some to suffer mental health problems.

While three out of four suicides in Scotland are male, it is not only the deprived who are at risk. Males of all social classes are affected and the statistics suggest that changing family patterns, the increased likelihood of divorce and new patterns of work have impacted across society.

Dave Mearns, Emeritus Professor of Counselling at the University of Strathclyde, said that as society had changed, men were more likely than women to question the reason for their existence.

“Not long ago, men defined existence through work, but now they rarely enter into a job and think: ‘That's me, that's what I'm about.' There is no feeling of definition.

“For many young women there is a ready raison d'être - childbirth is an alternative to existential depression,” Professor Mearns said.

Compared to England and Wales, the suicide rate among Scottish males has risen steadily while the rate in Northern Ireland has remained consistently lower. And even though the figures for women are appreciably lower than for men, suicides among Scottish women run at 50 per cent more than in other countries.

Experts believe that isolation, more than deprivation, accounts for the greater prevalence of suicide in the Highlands than in other country areas such as Fife, Forth Valley and Lothian, where rates were below the average.

“We know that isolation is a huge risk factor in suicide. The gap between the notion of a rural idyll and the reality of rural life could also have a severe health impact,” Professor Platt said.

However, health officials may take take solace from longer-term statistics, which show an overall fall of 13 per cent in suicides in Scotland between 2000-02 and 2005-07. It was these figures that were highlighted by Shona Robison, the Public Health Minister.

The Scottish figures were published ahead of a European conference on suicide and suicidal behaviour, being held in Glasgow this week.

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