CLINICAL PROFILE OF FEMALE SUICIDE ATTEMPTERS - A HOSPITAL BASED STUDY

BACKGROUND: "Gender Paradox" is a known phenomenon in the field of suicidology and over the past century, there has been a dramatic change in the gender role of females in the entire bio psychosocial domain which is affecting their mental health. The present study tries to analyze these determinantal factors contributing to female suicide attempts. AIM: To study the clinical profile of female suicide attempters. METHODOLOGY: Fifty seven subjects fulfilling the inclusion and exclusion criteria were recruited in the study. The sociodemographic details were recorded in the semi-structured proforma. Detailed assessment of Psychiatric morbidity and attempted suicide was done by clinical interview and validated by M.I.N.I.-Plus and Beck Suicide Intent Scale. Statistical analysis was done with the help of SPSS version 16. RESULTS: In this study, we had 57 cases most of them belonged to the age group of 11-20 yrs (56%), were married (51%), and were from urban background (75%). Poisoning (44%) was the most common mode of attempt followed by drug overdose (32%). The attempt was of low lethality in 72% and 53% of the cases had high intentionality. Marital discords followed by interpersonal conflicts were the common stressors. In this study 75% of the cases were diagnosed to be having Adjustment Disorder followed by Depressive disorder in 16%. CONCLUSION: Marital discord and interpersonal conflicts were the major stressors in the female attempters and majority of the patients had a psychiatric diagnosis so early detection and intervention will reduce the morbidity and mortality.