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Among the South
East Asia Region Member Countries, suicide rates vary from 8-50 per 100,000
population per year. India
and Sri Lanka
record the highest number of suicide rates and occupy the 45th and 7th positions
globally. Higher rates of suicides have been noticed in the age group of
15-34 years in all the countries. Significant urban to rural differences
exist depending on age-sex composition, education and other social
determinants.
The method of
suicides also varies across countries and regions with poisoning and hanging
being common methods. Self-immolation is also common in India. However, this pattern is likely to change
depending on availability of methods, thus indicating the need for
surveillance.
Information on parasuicides is not known for any country as health
information systems are weak in the Region. However, the ratio of completed
to attempted varies from 1:5 to as high as 1:70. A recent review of suicides in South East Asia revealed that nearly 10-30% of
registrations in hospital emergency departments are due to attempted
suicides.
Moreover, the
classical risk factor applicable to suicide in western countries, usually
cannot explain most suicides in the SEAR. The area of suicides aetiology has
been complex and clearly not known in every country. A number of socio
economic factors, religion and culture, system related factors, bio-chemical
imbalances in individuals are known to contribute for high occurrence of
suicides. A number of persons at risk are not identified nor referred to
health care agencies for the management of suicides.
A multi-site
research and intervention study on suicidal behaviours
has been initiated by WHO/HQ in which three SEAR member countries, India, Sri Lanka
and Thailand
are participating.
The results of
this study should lead to identification of unique local factors which
predispose a person to committing suicide, thus, saving precious lives.
The manual “Suicide Prevention:Emerging
from Darknesss”
has been prepared by experts from the Region, provides valuable
information about the current state of knowledge about suicide and what can
be done to prevent suicide.
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