Background: Suicide is one of the ten major causes of death in India. Intentional self-harm is also associated with long term risk for repeated attempts as well as death by suicide. Individuals differ in the degree to which risk and protective factors affect their propensity for engaging in suicidal behaviours. The present study seeks to explore about suicidal intent among the self-harm attempters.Methods: This was a hospital based cross-sectional study and includes both male and female patients attending the psychiatric outpatient department of government general hospital, Nellore. After obtaining the informed consent, the necessary data was obtained by a semi-structured interview schedule.Results: Descriptive analysis of the cases showed that those aged less than 30 years (49.3%), unmarried (52.0%), female subjects (52.0%), urban residents (51.3%) and those belonging to nuclear families (60.6%) were commonly involved. Organo-phosphorus poisoning was the commonly used method (30%). The psychological problems were the most common reason (40.0%) for attempting suicide. Mode of attempt, type of stress, existing physical illness and past psychiatric illness influenced the suicidal attempts.Conclusions: Gender specific differences were noted with regard to mode of attempt, type of stressors, physical illness, and past psychiatric illness. Young age groups are vulnerable for suicide. Identifying risk factors helps to design interventions to prevent further attempts.

Background: Suicide is one of the ten major causes of death in India. Intentional self-harm is also associated with long term risk for repeated attempts as well as death by suicide. Individuals differ in the degree to which risk and protective factors affect their propensity for engaging in suicidal behaviors. The present study seeks to explore about suicidal intent among the self-harm attempters.Methods: This was a hospital based cross-sectional study and includes both male and female patients attending the psychiatric outpatient department. After obtaining the informed consent and socio-demographic information, they were evaluated with semi-structured proforma.Results: Descriptive analysis of the cases shows that 56 (46.6%) of age group between 31-40 years are commonly affected. Among the study subjects 79 (65.8%) attempters had no psychiatric illness for attempt and 41 (34.2%) subjects with past psychiatric illness, OP poisoning being the common method in 40 (33.3%) of attempters. In this study 80 (66.6%) of people did not have co-morbid conditions, drug dependency (alcohol dependence) was 20 (16.6%) and others are 20 (16.6%).Conclusions: The suicidal attempts are more in females than males and it is also common in nuclear families, rural areas and individuals with past psychological problems. In this study suicidal attempts were more common among the people not suffering any other co morbid condition.