Suicide in Kaski District

Abstract

The Western Region Community Mental Health Programme conducted a study about suicide in two phases. In phase I, 287 cases brought to the Western Region Hospital for post mortem were analyzed to discover the causes of death. The 49 cases of hanging and the 20 cases of poisoning were taken as suicide cases. A suicide rate ratio of 12.4 was found. In phase II, interviews were done with relatives of complete suicide cases when the dead body was brought to hospital for post mortem, and with the relatives of attempted suicide cases when they were in the hospital for treatment. In cases of suicide, hanging was found as the most common means, followed by poisoning. Use of poison was the main method of attempted suicide. Mental illness, particularly depression and psychosis, alcoholism and clear psychosocial stress were important causes of suicide in this study. Some of the relatives of the deceased responded as if everything was normal before committing suicide.