TY - JOUR AU - Asif, Aftab AU - Yusuf, Fatima AU - Haider, Kamran AU - H, Gul AU - S, Usman AU - S, Akbar AU - M, Hussain AU - H, Rashid AU - N A, Balouch PY - 2016/04/21 Y2 - 2024/03/29 TI - Epidemiology of attempted suicides in emergency of Mayo Hospital in 2004 JF - Annals of King Edward Medical University JA - Annals KEMU VL - 11 IS - 4 SE - Articles DO - 10.21649/akemu.v11i4.1058 UR - https://annalskemu.org/journal/index.php/annals/article/view/1058 SP - AB - <p>Background: Suicide is one of the ten leading causes of death in the world, it ranks 8th leading cause in America and 4th as years of lost life. It accounts for more than 400,000 deaths annually. Different countries have different incidence rate and suicidal patterns, which are in accordance to their cultural, religious and social values. Suicide, a major global public health problem, is an under-studied and under researched subject in Pakistan, a conservative Islamic and developing country, with severe, legal, social and religious sanctions against it. Basic epidemiological data including national suicide rates are neither known nor reported to the World Health Organization. Despite this there is strong suggestive evidence that suicide not only occurs regularly but there has been an increase in the incidence over the last few years. Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate all the cases that presented in Mayo hospital Lahore from the duration 1st January 2004-31st December 2004, of attempted suicide. We wanted to find out what area they belonged to, which age group had an increased incidence, what was the male to female ratio, What method of suicide was adopted and during which season was the incidence the greatest. Materials and methods: All people who attempted suicide (medico-legal cases) from 1st January 2004 to 31st December 2004 were included in the study. Detailed information was provided by forensic department in Mayo Hospital, about age, sex, date of attempt and area they belonged to. Results: showed a male dominance, also the age group of 21-30 years showed the greatest frequency. Greater number of cases belonged to the urban area, the most common mode of suicide was by poisoning and contrary to international studies the greatest number of attempts was during the summer season. Conclusion: The results in our study show that attempted suicidal rate has rapidly increased since 1995. In 2004 almost 4/day of attempted suicide (medico-legal) cases presented in the emergency department of Ma yo hospital compared to less than 0.4/day in 1995. Our study also shows male dominance in number of attempted suicide. It also showed that in our population 21-30years had the highest number of attempts. . Our study also shows a greater number of attempts during summer months where as in the western countries a greater number is shown during spring and winter.</p> ER -