Socio-demographic Profile and Mode of Attempt of Suicide among Suicide Attempters in Kashmir: a Hospital-Based Study

Background: Suicide is an important and serious public health problem. It is one of the major emergencies in psychiatry. This study was carried out to assess the socio-demographic profile and mode of attempt of suicide among suicidal attempters attending emergency.Methods: This study was a cross sectional, observational study conducted at Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences-Kashmir, an associated hospital of Government Medical College Srinagar, among the suicide patients attending the outpatient service and inpatient services fulfilling inclusion and exclusion criteria over a period of one and a half year. Each patient was informed about the purpose of interview; his/her consent was obtained in a simple and easily understandable unambiguous language.Results: A total of 221 cases who had been admitted following unsuccessful suicide attempts to the emergency and psychiatry department were taken up for the study. Out of which 161 (72.9%) were females and 60 (27.1%) were males, the mean age was 24.61±8.9 years. Lower middle and upper lower classes occupied an equal percentage of 34.4% of the suicide attempters, while 24% belonged to upper middle class and only 5.9% belonged to lower class .The least no. of cases (1.4%) were from the upper classes. The most common mode adopted was poisoning whereas the least common mode was self- immolation. Poisoning and self-mutilation were proportionally high in females as compared to males with a significant p value.Conclusions: There should be a robust system in place which takes care of future management and follow up of this group of population.