Evaluation of Suicide Attempters in General Hospital

Abstract

Objective:Gender differences, age groupsand methods in suicide attempts were investigated in a sample of 2775 patients. Method:The registrations of the emergency departmentof the general hospital during years 2002 and2003 were investigated retrospectively.Results: The female attempted suicide rates(68.5%) were higher than the male suicideattempt rates ( 31.5%). On average the rates forfemales were 2 times higher then those for men.The female suicide attempters showed suicideattempts at a much younger age than the males.Methods used in suicide attempts are mostly"non-violent". 94.9% of the patients used selfpoisoning with prescribed or non-prescribedmedicines, pesticids, herbicides or other toxicagricultural chemicals. Conclusion: Femalesare more vulnerable than males for attemptingsuicide. There is a need for better nationwidecontinous registration of attempted suicide andrelated socio-economic condition as well aspsychiatric morbidity