Study of suicides reported to the Coroner in Colombo, Sri Lanka

Abstract

Self-poisoning and self-immolation were the commonest methods used to commit suicide. Marital disharmony was the main reason (30%). Psychiatric illnesses were responsible for only 6%. Future interventional activities should include secure access and restriction of the availability of pesticides and drugs, empowering people to manage anger and conflicts, and recognition and treatment of alcoholism and psychiatric illnesses. The success story of the reduction in the incidence of suicides in Sri Lanka should be a lesson to many developing countries where suicide is a major socioeconomic and health issue.

A case-control study of psychosocial risk and protective factors of self-immolation in Iran

“…In Afghanistan, of 523 burn patients in a one-year period, 21 were due to self-immolation, and women with a median age of 19 years old made up the overwhelming majority of these cases [19]. In a study from Sri Lanka, the majority of 51 (34%) out of 151 suicide patients who died of self-immolation were young women aged between 20 and 29 years [20]. According to Naghavi's report, after natural disasters and breast cancer, self-immolation is the third leading cause of Years of Life Lost among Iranian women [46].…”

“…While the male to female ration in self-immolation is higher in developed countries [17], in Eastern Mediterranean countries such as Iran, Afghanestan, India, Sir Lanka share self-immolation is highly prevalent among young adults [3,[18][19][20], women [21,17,22,23], and population that experience economic adversity and poverty and low education [16,[24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33].…”

Age and sex specific suicide rates in Sri Lanka from 1995-2011

“…The other substances used in poisoning-related suicides include acids, plant poisons and medicinal drugs (4). Other methods used in suicide are burns, hanging, jumping in front of a train and drowning (5). Although the rate of hospital admissions due to poisoning have increased between 1996-2008, admissions due to pesticide poisoning have decreased (2).…”

Epidemiological characteristics of suicide cases in Rafsanjan from 2004 to 2009: the roles of family disputes and unemployment

“…A family dispute is a common term which might encompass several scenarios including dispute with the spouse, dispute with parents, disputes in love affairs, etc. Unfortunately a substantial number of studies documented family disputes as one of the most common reasons for committing suicide [17][18][19][20]. Therefore, primary prevention plans for suicide must take these important issues into account.…”