Viewers of the hit TV soap Casualty overdosed on painkillers by copying a character who tried to kill himself on screen, Oxford professors have claimed.

The number of people who tried to commit suicide using paracetamol tablets rocketed by almost a fifth following the BBC screening.

World renowned Professor Keith Hawton, of the Warneford Hospital, and Professor Chris Bulstrode, of the John Radcliffe Hospital, studied 49 accident and emergency wards and psychiatric services, including Oxford's, in the UK in the week after the episode was broadcast. They discovered that people attempting overdoses increased by 17 per cent, although the number of deaths remained unchanged. Paracetamol overdoses increased in particular, but only among those people who had seen Casualty.

Project director Prof Bulstrode said: "We were gobsmacked to find it rise.

"Drama has a very profound effect on the general public. They gain a lot of information from drama and they draw their own conclusions.

"These TV soap operas are incredibly powerful in terms of educating the public." During the controversial episode, screened in November 1996 and watched by 13m people, an RAF fighter pilot became depressed after believing he had suffered anepileptic fit and tried to kill himself using 50 paracetamol tablets. BBC Casualty spokesman Fiona Williams said: "Throughout its 13-year history, Casualty has earned respect and praise because it is not afraid to tackle serious issues like suicide, wife-beating or violence against hospital staff." Andrew Ketteringham, of the Broadcasting Standards Commission, said: "We are aware that parents often welcome coverage of difficult issues in soap operas because they enable them to introduce the subject to their children."

Story date: Friday 09 April

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.