Statistical retrospective study of suicides in the Pleven district – Bulgaria for a 10-year period

Abstract

Suicides are an important and current social and medical problem of the modern society. According to the National statistics for the period 2000-2010 in Bulgaria there have been 11646 suicides or death due to intentional self-harm. The objective of this study is to research the dynamics and structure of suicides in the county of Pleven for the past ten years, distributions based on gender, age, place of residence, chronobiology, cause of death, as well as other details. Subject of retrospective analysis is forensic medicine reports from the archives of the Department of Forensic Medicine at the Medical University-Pleven. 366 cases were investigated over a period of 2008 to 2017 years. The results show that men are 230 (62.8%) and women 136 (37.2%). The same ratio applies between residents in town and village. The highest is the number of suicides in the age interval between 61 and 70 years. According to the causes of death, the highest number is due to hanging-176 cases or 48%, followed by jumping from high buildings and poisoning. In 14% of cases presence of alcohol in the blood was found. Most suicides occur in March, followed by June and July, and according to days of the week-on Tuesdays and Fridays. The blood types of the suitcidants in the district of Pleven were compared to those in the district of Plovdiv, as well as the distribution for the whole Republic of Bulgaria. Finally, there is a comparison of similarities and differences with the results of other studies.