RESEARCHERS are investigating 150 suicides in a bid to discover what drives people to take their own lives.

About one in five suicide victims are known to local mental health services.

But little is known about the great majority of those who take their own lives.

To try to find out more about these tragic deaths, a four-strong team drawn from Tees and North East Yorkshire NHS Trust and Tees Health Authority have begun examining records.

The ultimate aim of the research is to try to devise a local strategy to reduce the total number of suicides.

Dr Peter Haywood, a public health doctor from Tees Health Authority, said: "There are normally around 70 suicides on Teesside every year, which makes us the 14th highest health authority area in England. We are looking at a variety of written records, which relate to about 150 people who have taken their own lives."

Dr Haywood stressed that any published information would be strictly anonymous and it was not the intention to cause any distress to relatives or friends.

Eighty per cent of suicides are male and the biggest single group is young men, aged between 25 and 34.

Unusually, Teesside has a relatively high number of male suicides aged 55-64.

It is known that unemployment or living alone are strong risk factors for suicide. The researchers want to find out if there are any other common links.

Sandra McKenzie, a liaison psychiatry nurse, said: "The aim is to describe the local picture of suicide so that meaningful comparisons can be drawn with the national picture. This will allow us to focus on local needs, identify service gaps, raise awareness and look at local preventative possibilities.