Gender differences among suspected suicide attempts in a rural tertiary care hospital on South India

Journal Title: Open Journal of Psychiatry & Allied Sciences - Year 2018, Vol 9, Issue 1

Abstract

Context: Globally, majority of suicide completers are known to be men as opposed to the majority of suicide attempters being women. Men use lethal methods more often than women who rely more on poisoning. Aims: To study the gender differences in the characteristics of the suspected cases of suicidal attempts among the medicolegal cases admitted to a rural tertiary care hospital. Settings and design: Retrospective, explorative-descriptive study of medicolegal case records of patients admitted to a rural tertiary care hospital situated in the southern state of Karnataka, India. Methods and material: Medicolegal case records of suspected cases of suicide attempt (n=829) admitted between the period of January 2013 to December 2015 were analysed. Statistical analysis: Descriptive analysis for frequencies and percentages was done. The Pearson’s chi-square test was used to study the gender difference amongst the different variables. Results: Majority of the suspected suicide attempters were male (59.8%), in the age group of 21-30 years (44.8%), married (62.2%), farmers (51.4%), and belonging to lower socioeconomic status (62.7%). For both the genders, the most common mode of attempting suicide was by pesticide poisoning (overall 49.2%) and the most common immediate precipitants were relationship issues (overall 49.5%). Females were significantly younger than males. There was statistically significant association of gender with age group, occupation, mode of attempt, and immediate precipitant. Conclusions: Gender differences among suicide attempters might be reflective of the socio-cultural and regional influences on suicidal behaviour in a rural agrarian setting.

Authors and Affiliations

Ravi S Kumar, Uzma Hashim

Keywords

Related Articles

Monobider Moner Katha

This is the review of a book written in Bengali and authored by a senior academician and psychiatrist containing case histories of great literary standard.

Parenting stress among mentally retarded children with normal control

Background: Parents having a child with mental retardation experience a variety of stressors to the child’s disability and are known to get impacted in many ways because of having a special child. Parents of mentally ret...

Comorbidity of bipolar disorder and dementia: the diagnostic dilemma

Letter to editor on comorbidity of bipolar disorder and dementia: the diagnostic dilemma

Anxiety level among family members attending patients admitted in intensive care unit

Background: As family is an integral part of patients’ care, they are often the ones who determine satisfaction of care provided, as well as with the overall critical care experience. This is always observed that family...

Comparative study of various socio-demographic variables in patients having type 2 diabetes mellitus with or without depressive disorder: a brief report

Background: Group of common metabolic disorders, diabetes mellitus (DM) share hyperglycaemia as phenotype. When diabetes co-occurs with depression, adverse bidirectional relationship is seen which increases the burden of...

Download PDF file
  • EP ID EP254448
  • DOI 10.5958/2394-2061.2018.00012.5
  • Views 144
  • Downloads 0

How To Cite

Ravi S Kumar, Uzma Hashim (2018). Gender differences among suspected suicide attempts in a rural tertiary care hospital on South India. Open Journal of Psychiatry & Allied Sciences, 9(1), 59-65. https://europub.co.uk/articles/-A-254448