Causes and outcome of suicidal cases presented to a medical ward

Abstract

Suicide is one of the leading causes of death in world but its causes and methods may vary. We enrolled patients who presented to the emergency with attempted suicide. The end point was death, discharge or leaving the hospital against medical advice. The study was designed to know the modes of committing suicide and underlying causes. Of the total 107 patients, who presented to the emergency 59 (55%) were males and 48 (45%) were females. Most common poison ingested was wheat pill in 35 (33.3%) patients followed by bleach/bathroom cleaner in 27 (25.7%), benzodiazepines in 20 (19%) and a small proportion of patients had copper sulfate, organophosphorus compounds, rat pills, lice powder, dettol and varnish. Two patients presented after hanging. Twenty eight (26%) patients died, just after reaching hospital and 10 had permanent disability. For suicide the most common poisons used were those that were easily available and without any ban on their sale. So general awareness should be created among masses about them and legal restrictions should be imposed on their sale.