Profile of Young Suicide Attempt Survivors in a Tertiary Care Hospital in Puducherry

Abstract

Context:Puducherry has the highest suicide prevalence rate in India by 2014, predominantly among the 14–30 years age group.Aims:The aim of the present study is to study the characteristics of adolescent and youth suicide attempters in Puducherry and measure the suicide intent.Settings and Design:An observational study of 6 months duration was conducted in the Department of Psychiatry, at Sri Manakula Vinayagar Medical College and Hospital, Puducherry, India.Materials and Methods:Modified version of World Health Organizations SUicide PREvention Multisite Intervention Study on Suicidal questionnaire was used to collect sociodemographic data and Beck's suicide intent scale was used to measure the suicide intent scores. International Classification of Diseases-10 was used for diagnosis.Statistical Analysis:Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 13 was used for descriptive analysis and correlation statistics. P value was set as <0.05.Results:Of 56 eligible participants, 40 formed the sample, their mean age was 18. 13 (±2.50), more females (1.1:1), rural, literate, lower socioeconomic status (67.5%), mostly single (90%), living in nuclear (95%), and Hindu (87.5%). One hundred percent had psychosocial stressors before suicide attempt. Acute stress disorder/adjustment disorder was the most common diagnosis. Emotionally unstable and anankastic personality traits were seen in 12%. Pesticide ingestion (45%) was the most common suicide method. Sixty percent attempted suicide within <30 min of suicidal contemplation. Statistical associations were found between the alleged purpose, seriousness, attitude toward living/dying, conception about medical rescuability, and the overall suicide intent.Conclusions:Adolescent and youth suicide attempts occur due to psychosocial stressors rather than due to the past or on-going mental health disorders with above personality traits suggest poor coping skills and resilience taken to deal with stressful situations by younger people.

Adjustment Disorder and Suicidal Behaviours Presenting in the General Medical Setting: A Systematic Review

“…Four of the twenty (20%) studies included, focused exclusively on paediatric populations [12,13,14], and eight (40%) had a mixed demographic which included those under the age of eighteen as well as adults. Of these Lingeswaran et al described a population with age range of ten to thirty years [15]; Mitrev reported an age range of fifteen to over sixty years [16], and Ghimire et al described a population of two hundred presentations to an ED in Nepal that ranged in age from fifteen to fifty-five years (77% of whom were aged under 34 years) [17]; McCauley et al described a population aged between 10 and 60 years in an ED in a hospital in rural Ireland, close to half of the sample were aged less than thirty [18]; Galgali et al reported a mean age of 25 (SD = 8.1) in their sample, without describing a range [19]; Zarghami et al reported an average age of 27 years (SD = 13.5), again without specifying the age range [20]; Abumadani et al report an patients in Saudi Arabia aged 13–74 [21] and Wai et al focused on a young adult/adolescent population all aged under 21 [22].…”

“…Lingeswaren et al reported that 100% of the people seen with self-poisoning had a diagnosis of AD. It is not clear from the study whether a diagnosis of AD was a selection criterion or whether all patients who presented during the timeframe of the studies happened to have a diagnosis of AD [15].…”

Consultation-liaison psychiatric service utilization by suicide attempters

“…[ 28 29 31 32 34 35 36 ] A few studies have found adjustment disorder to be the most common disorder. [ 37 38 39 40 ] Two studies have found personality disorders, mainly emotionally unstable personality disorder to be the most common psychiatric diagnosis. [ 27 41 ] Two studies found the most common psychiatric diagnosis to be alcohol dependence syndrome.…”

Study on risk factors in adolescents admitted with deliberate self-harm in Tata main hospital, Jamshedpur

“…This increase in rate in later adolescence may be due to greater psychopathology, more cognitive ability to plan and act, more autonomy, and less supervision. [ 26 ] Majority attempters were females, nearly, all studies on adolescent suicide attempts have reported more representation of females[ 26 27 28 29 ] Although in the traditional Indian culture, women enjoy a more protected role, the changing expectations, and workforce participation, the female sex also experience a concurrent rise in role conflicts and psychosocial stressors. The hostile environment in families, preexisting personality problems, and mental illness could precipitate suicidal behavior.…”

“…Our results were comparable to these earlier studies where similar findings were found. [ 25 29 ] The reason for this variation in findings can be attributed to the fact that the data has been collected from an urban setting where usage and possessing of insecticides at home is not as common as in rural settings. Still, this cause amounts to the second most common cause in our study.…”