Study of attempted suicide in the catchment area of Mamatha general hospital, Khammam, India

ABSTRACT

Background: Persons with psychiatric co- morbidity have markedly high risk of suicide attempts.Aim To study the socio-demographic variables, role of life events and prevalence of psychiatric diagnosis in suicideattempters. The present study has been undertaken with an intention to have deeper insight in to the mental health ofsuicide attempters.Methods A semi structured interview consisting of socio-demographic details, a proforma to document suicide attemptdata, Presumptive Stressful Life Event scale (PSLE) to know the desirable or undesirable life events. Mini InternationalNeuropsychiatric Interview plus (MINI Plus) was used to assess the psychiatric abnormality. Data was statisticallyanalyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences - Version 10 (SPSS -10).Results: Suicide attempters experience peaking of stressful events in the early months before the attempt. Most commondiagnoses were depression, personality disorders, followed by alcohol dependence and anxiety disorders.Conclusion: Suicide attempters are more among the groups of young age, female gender, rural background, married,belonging to nuclear family and low socio economic class. Majority of the suicide attempters are suffering with psychiatric illness.