ACADEMICS have clashed with the Scottish Tories over claims that the policies of Margaret Thatcher left a generation in Scotland at increased risk of suicide for decades.

Researchers found young adults entering the labour market during the 1980s north of the border had a higher risk of suicide for the next 30 years, compared to those born before or after. However, the Scottish Tories have dismissed the findings as "crass and ludicrous".

For men in deprived areas born between 1965 and 1974, the risk of suicide increased by around 30%, compared to previous or later generations.

The researchers have also suggested that one explanation for suicide rates dropping in recent years is this group has now ‘aged out’ of the peak risk age for suicides.

Study co-author Dr Gerry McCartney, head of the Public Health Observatory at NHS Health Scotland, said: “This work was to look to see if it was what is called a cohort effect in suicide, where you have a particularly high risk of an outcome amongst a group of people who were born round about the same time.

“What we see is that people who were in their early working age in the 1980s carry a higher risk of suicide for the next 30 years, and that is a higher risk than people who came before them or came after them.

“We can hypothesis that vulnerability became revealed in the 1980s, probably through high unemployment and a lack of prospects for that group of people at that particular time, and that carried a risk of suicide subsequently.”

The study, published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, notes there may have been a large section of the Scottish population “disproportionately affected by the introduction of neoliberalism”.

It adds: “In the UK context, this is associated with the election of the Conservative government in 1979, which dramatically changed social and economic policy during the 1980s.”

The years during which Thatcher was Prime Minister - from 1979 to 1990 - were characterised by the decline of Scotland’s heavy industries which thousands relied on for work, with steelworks, car manufacturing and mining among the worst affected.

High-profile casualties included the Linwood car plant in Renfrewshire, which shut in 1981 with 4800 jobs lost and the closure of the Leyland plant in Bathgate in 1986 with 1800 job losses.

McCartney acknowledged the researchers did not have any data to show if individuals who died by suicide during this time were exposed to factors such as unemployment.

But he said the research built on the findings of other studies, for example, which have linked higher alcohol-related deaths in Scotland with impact of the social and economic changes of the Thatcher years.

McCartney said: “Suicide rates are coming down now and have been for the last five to ten years.

“One potential explanation for that is we know suicide tends to peak among young adults. In essence this cohort have now aged beyond that time horizon. So the peak age at risk of suicide has now passed this cohort by.”

A spokesman for the Scottish Conservatives said: “Suicide is one of the worst things that can affect a family, and can occur for so many reasons, many of which are difficult to understand.

“To somehow blame politics for this is crass, ludicrous and a desperate conclusion. People would respect these studies much more if they could find meaningful solutions to a problem which affects people the world over, instead of cramming random statistics into a political agenda.”