Suicide on the Indian Subcontinent

Abstract

The Indian subcontinent comprises eight countries (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Bhutan, and the Maldives) and a collective population of more than 1.3 billion people. 10% of the world's suicides (more than 100,000 people) take place in just three of these countries, viz. India, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan. There is very little information on suicides from the other four countries. Some differences from suicides in Western countries include the high use of organophosphate insecticides, larger numbers of married women, fewer elderly subjects, and interpersonal relationship problems and life events as important causative factors. There is need for more and better information regarding suicide in the countries of the Indian subcontinent. In particular, studies must address culture-specific risk factors associated with suicide in these countries. The prevention of this important public health problem in an area of the world with myriad socio-economic problems, meager resources, and stigmatization of mental illness poses a formidable challenge to mental health professionals, policy makers, and governments of these countries.

Suicide Kills More Than 10,000 People Every Year in Bangladesh

“…The findings are consistent with study findings in India, Sri Lanka and China (Khan, 2002;Mohanty, Sahu, Mohanty et al, 2007;Phillips, Li, & Xhang, 2002). Adolescent females were found to be more vulnerable than adolescent males which contradicts findings from the US (Conner & Goldston, 2007), however the findings were consistent with study findings in India (Gajalakshmi & Peto, 2007).…”

“…Suicide rates found more than 20 per 100,000 in Japan and rural China (Beautrais, 2006). High incidence of suicide was also found in India (Khan, 2002), where the rate varied between 8.1 and 58.3=100 000 in different regions of India (Joseph, Abraham, Muliyil et al 2003). In Sri Lanka the rate was found to be 37 per 100,000 population (Krug, Dahlberg, Mercy et al, 2000).…”

A Re-Examination of the Current Status and Future of Family Therapy in India

“…In addition, we would like to highlight that India is seeing an increase in rates of suicide, homicide, rape, and psychiatric related problems (Agarwal, Mehta, & Gupta, 1978;Chandra et al, 1995;Davar, 1999) in part because of the stresses of modern day life. India is second only to China in a ranking of nations by total number of suicides (Khan, 2002) with the highest rates of suicides occurring in the age groups of 20-30 years (Venkoba, 1984). In India more married women as compared to single or divorced women attempt suicide (Ponnudurai & Jeyakar, 1980).…”

Suicide in Asia

“…In addition, suicide and attempted suicide are still considered criminal acts in some Asian countries. In India, for these reasons, there have been reports of suicide cases being preferentially sent to private hospitals, that neither record such cases as suicide nor report them to the police, instead diagnosing them as 'accidental' (Khan, 2002).…”