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Background:There are few diverse studies that have reported the case fatality rates of different methods of suicide, none of them are originated from developing countries. The aim of the present article is to report the case fatality rates of different methods of suicide in Ilam province of Iran.Materials and Methods:Data on 611 cases of suicide and 1807 cases of deliberate self harm (DSH) that were recorded in a comprehensive registry during 1995 through 2002 were analyzed for both genders together and for males and females, separately.Findings:For both genders together, the two most fatal methods were hanging (75.4%) and self-immolation (68.3%); for males, hanging (76.3%) and self-immolation (64.7%); and for females, firearms (75%) and hanging (73.7%), respectively. The least fatal methods for both genders together and for females and males separately were drug ingestion and cutting.Conclusion:The results of present study, which for the first time has reported the case fatality rates of suicide methods in a developing world, would not only help to better plan the local suicide prevention strategies and clinical assessment of suicidal cases but to shed light on overall understanding of this mysterious human phenomenon.

The likelihood of completing suicide depends to some extent on knowledge of effective means and also on the availability and/or acceptability of such methods. Since studying suicide methods may have an implication for prevention, the focus of this study was on the most favored method of suicide in Tehran, Iran. The study uses confirmed suicide data provided by the Beheshet Zahra Organization (BZO), which gathers all mortality data within Tehran and enters them into a computerized database, from which the relevant information for all the recorded suicide cases during the year 2000 to 2004 were obtained and analyzed. There were 703 cases of suicide (632 males and 71 females) in the BZO database, with a sex ratio of 8.9. The mean (standard deviation) of age at suicide for those who chose hanging and for those who have chosen other methods of suicide were 33.93 (14.2) and 34.60 (13.4) years, respectively. Hanging was the method favored by 572 (85.9%) of cases. Use of hanging was higher in females (61, 85.9%) than in males (511, 80.9%), and higher among the married (304, 53.6%) than among singles (268, 46.4%). The high proportion of persons using hanging as a method of suicide in Tehran may reflect the fact that this method is more acceptable and/or easily available and/or less likely to be misclassified as accidental or undetermined death. The prevention of such suicides is extremely difficult in the general population. Therefore, it is suggested that, to prevent suicide by hangings, the authorities should focus on the causal factors of suicide rather than on the acceptability and/or the availability of this method.