OBJECTIVES: To correlate Google Trends scores for the search "how to commit suicide" with the cases of suicide during 2016 to 2018 in Colombia.

METHODS: Descriptive exploratory study, in which the values that Google assigns to searches were accessed, which were averaged monthly. Suicide cases were obtained from the Colombian Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences and correlated with monthly mean search trend scores. Pearson correlation coefficient was calculated.

RESULTS: The total mean of the search scores for the study term was 47.8 (SD+/: 19.9). An increase in the number of suicide cases was found, going from 2,301 in 2016 to 2,696 in 2018. It was observed that there were increases in suicide rates in the country, hand in hand with increases in the average search scores, in the first case they went from 4.7 x 100,000 in 2016 to 5.4 x 100,00 in 2018, and in the second case, they went from 44.6 to 51, with a correlation coefficient that shows a strong relationship and direct between the two variables: 0.99

CONCLUSIONS: Searches on suicide may be related to the occurrence of this event.