Suicidal Behaviour in Bangladesh: A Scoping Literature Review and a Proposed Public Health Prevention Model

Abstract

The objectives of this review are to explore through a scoping analysis of published literature, the prevalence of suicidal ideation, attempts and suicide, and the correlates and presumed causes of such behaviours in Bangladesh, in order to develop a model of public health research and prevention. This type of review aims to contextualise existing knowledge, set it within a practice and policy context, and make recommendations for health care service delivery and evaluation. The evidence indicates an unusual pattern of completed suicide rates, those most at risk being younger women. The rate in adolescent girls is exceptionally high by international standards, and appears to reflect poverty, the low status of women, violence directed against girls and women, and forced marriages of young, teenage girls.

Current challenges of suicide and future directions of management in Bangladesh: a systematic review

“…Other few studies reported the rate as 39.6 per 100,000 populations per year (Table 2) (Feroz et al 2012;Qusar et al 2009;Wu et al 2012). Suicides were happening more in rural areas of Bangladesh, especially in Chuadanga, Jenaidah, Kustia, Meherpur, Jashore and Chandpur (Chowdhury et al 2018;Shahnaz et al 2017;Arafat 2017;Feroz et al 2012). The country needs further larger studies to identify the near actual rate of suicides.…”

“…Suicide is grossly under reported and under registered in countries such as Bangladesh (Khan 2002(Khan 2005World Health Organization 2014;Chowdhury et al 2018;Shahnaz et al 2017). Moreover, there is no suicidal database in the country to report suicide metrics to the global agencies and to contribute in the global suicide statistics (Shah et al 2017;Arafat 2017;Chowdhury et al 2018).…”

“…Bangladesh is a densely populated country in south-east Asia having about 160 million people with a density of about 1063 per square kilometre (Shahnaz et al 2017;Arafat 2017;Mashreky et al 2013). Suicide is a complex, multi-causal, global preventable public health problem that is under researched in Bangladesh (World Health Organization 2014; Shahnaz et al 2017;Mashreky et al 2013;Shah et al 2017Shah et al , 2018Arafat et al 2018a,b;Arafat 2017). The World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that about 10,000 persons are dying by suicide per year in the country (World Health Organization 2014;Mashreky et al 2013;Shahnaz et al 2017;Begum et al 2017a).…”

“…Suicide is a complex, multi-causal, global preventable public health problem that is under researched in Bangladesh (World Health Organization 2014; Shahnaz et al 2017;Mashreky et al 2013;Shah et al 2017Shah et al , 2018Arafat et al 2018a,b;Arafat 2017). The World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that about 10,000 persons are dying by suicide per year in the country (World Health Organization 2014;Mashreky et al 2013;Shahnaz et al 2017;Begum et al 2017a). It is the fourth leading cause of overall injury-related deaths and second important cause of injuryassociated death in age groups of 20-39 years in Bangladesh (Mashreky et al 2013).…”

Depression, sleeping pattern & suicidal ideation among medical students in Bangladesh: A cross-sectional pilot study

“…This lengthy schooling is also considered as a predictor for developing depression & anxiety (Mao et al2019). Alarmingly, many Bangladeshi medical students had recently committed suicide (Shah et al 2017;Shahnaz et al 2017;Yeasmin 2018). Previous studies in other countries have shown that stress, depression and anxiety among undergraduate students remain underdiagnosed in more than 50% of cases.…”