Risk factors and reporting status for attempted Suicide: A hospital-based study

Context: Suicide is a major public health problem and ranks second among the leading causes of death in both genders in 15-34 years. Suicidal attempts are 20 times higher than the completed suicides. Aims: The aim was to identify background risk factors and precipitating factors for suicide attempts in Pondicherry district and to fi nd out the reporting status of suicide attempts. Settings and Design: Hospital-based descriptive study. Subjects and Methods: 200 subjects who have attempted suicide from JIPMER and Indira Gandhi Government Hospital and Post Graduate Institute Pondicherry were interviewed. Monthly data on attempted suicide were collected from Crime Record Bureau of Pondicherry and Villupuram district and Medical Records Department of these two hospitals was collected. Statistical Analysis Used: SPSS version 16.0 was used. Chi-square test was used to test the significance of the difference between two proportions. Results: Most common precipitating factor found among those who attempted suicide was verbal abuse, most often by parents (31.9%). The most common mode of suicide attempt was consumption of chemical poison in 56% of subjects followed by plant poison 41.5%. The suicide intention was high in 81.5% of subjects. No significant difference in risk factors could be found between subjects from Pondicherry and villupuram district. It was found that there was gross under-reporting of attempted suicides to Crime Records Bureau. Conclusions: Measurement of suicide intention enables us to predict the future suicidal behavior in adults; individuals with a high suicide intent index pose a major public health problem. Hence, there is a need for opportunistic screening of those with suicidal ideations as well as counseling and follow-up of those with suicide attempts to prevent further attempts.