Most suicides take place during spring, not winter holidays; media faulted for myth's endurance.(Clinical Rounds)

T.S. Eliot opens his famous poem, "The Waste Land," with the line "April is the cruelest month."

Statistically that may be true, because the springtime--not the winter holiday season--has the highest rate of suicides.

"April specifically has been the highest month for a long, long time. I think in recent years it's spread out a little more throughout the spring: It's April, May, and June. But if you took 1 month over the last 50 years, 90% of the time it's April. It's never been November, December, or January," Dr. Herbert Hendin, medical director of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP), said in an interview with this newspaper.

Dr. Hendin said the reasons for this phenomenon are unclear. "There are theories that have to do with time …