Epidemiology of attempted suicide in Hatay, Turkey

OBJECTIVE: To determine suicide rates, sociodemographic risk factors, and reasons for suicide attempts.

METHODS: This hospital based, retrospective study consisted of 1613 suicide attempts brought to the emergency services of 8 state hospitals in Hatay, Turkey from January 2007 to December 2009. We obtained the data by retrospective analysis of patient record forms including information on age, gender, education level, marital status, occupation, reason for suicide, method of suicide, presence of previous psychiatric disease in the patient or family, previous suicidal behavior in the patient or family. We obtained current population data of the province from the Turkish State Institute of Statistics. Chi-Square test, and percentage distribution was used for the statistical analysis.

RESULTS: The mean age of females (23.9+/-7.9) was lower than males (26.6+/-9.7). The mean annual rate of attempted suicides per 100,000 was 38.14 (16.11 in males, 60.42 in females). The rate decreased as the age increased, and was highest in the 15-24 age group, in women, in non-married patients, and in the individuals with high school education. Self-poisoning with a drug overdose was the most common method, and domestic conflicts were the most common reason. Psychiatric disease history in the family or patient, and suicide attempt in the family were risk factors associated with repeated suicide attempts.

CONCLUSION: The suicide attempt rate was lower than in many western countries, and similar to previous studies in Turkey. The risk of recurrence in suicide attempts is high, and is associated with psychosocial factors.