Profile of suicide in rural Cameroon: are health systems doing enough?

Abstract

Abstractobjectives To describe the characteristics of suicide and assess the capacity of health services at the district level in Cameroon to deliver quality mental health care.methods The study covered the period between 1999 and 2008 and was carried out in Guidiguis health district which had a population of 145 700 inhabitants in 2008. Data collection was based on psychological autopsy methods. To collect data, we used documentary review of medical archives, semi-structured interviews of relatives of suicide completers, a focus group discussion of health committee members and a survey to consulting nurses working at the primary health care level.

Suicidal behaviour across the African continent: a review of the literature

“…Similar to the findings from WHO statistics, data for Egypt show little variability in rates over time [13]. Trends in Cameroon (annual suicide incidence rates over 10 years;1999 to 2008 [12]) show a general increase in rates over time, with two notable decreases between 2001–2003 and 2006–2007. Rates increased substantially between 2003 and 2006 from ~1.5 to ~6.5 per 100,000 population.…”

“…In the United Republic of Tanzania [24] rates were highest amongst those aged 45–59 years (5.7 per 100,000) followed by those aged 30–44 years (4.0 per 100,000). Thirteen publications from eight countries reported either the mean or median age at suicide or the proportion within specific age bands [12,13,15,19,23,26,27,29-32,47,48], however these estimates should be interpreted with great caution as they are influenced by the age distribution of the general population. Mortality records are also often incomplete.…”

“…Nineteen publications from ten countries reported methods used for suicide [12,14,15,17,19,22-27,29-32,35,48,51,52]. The best available data for each country are presented in Table 5.…”

“…Further details about the poisonous toxins used were reported in eight countries. In Cameroon, Egypt, Malawi, Nigeria and Uganda most poisoning deaths were attributable to pesticides (typically organophosphorous, organochlorine and rodenticides) with low rates of medication overdose [12,15,19,23,29]. In comparison, studies from Senegal and the United Republic of Tanzania report higher rates of medicine overdose [30,32], whilst similar rates of medicine overdose and pesticide poisoning were found in South Africa [27].…”

“…Results stratified by sex showed some sex differences in methods [12,15,19,24,26,29,30,32,41,42,44,48,50]. For both suicides and suicide attempts females generally had higher rates of poisoning than males, whereas males were more likely than females to use violent methods such as hanging and firearms.…”