Rajeev Kattuparackal Madhavan1, Rekha Mathew2, Jaimon Plathottathil Michael3, Aravind Karunakaran4, Ganga Gangadhara Kaimal5, Binu Abraham6
BACKGROUND
Suicide attempts in young adults in the age group 18 - 25 years have grown
exponentially across the globe in the last three decades. Suicide is the third leading
cause of death among young adults worldwide and is the second leading cause of
death in 15 – 29-year-olds. The studies on the factors affecting suicidal intent
among young adult suicide attempters are few from the Indian context and young
adult group is of utmost importance. So, this study was done to estimate the
suicidal intent among young adult suicide attempters and to assess the various
factors associated with suicidal intent among young adults.
METHODS
The study was an analytical cross-sectional study, which was carried out at the
Suicide Prevention Clinic of the Department of Psychiatry at a Tertiary Care Centre
in Kerala, India over a period of 1 year from October 2015 to September 2016.
The consecutive 160 young adult suicide attempters were interviewed. Beck’s
suicide intent scale was used to assess the severity of suicide attempts. Statistical
significance of socio-demographic factors and suicidal intent score was assessed
by independent student t test and one way analysis of variance (ANOVA).
RESULTS
Out of the 160 participants, 50 (31.2 %) had low suicidal intent, 71 (44.4 %) had
medium suicidal intent and 39 (24.4 %) had high suicidal intent. The study showed
significant association between marital status (t = 2.515, P = 0.011), Occupation
(F = 7.991, P < 0.001), previous suicide attempt (t = - 2.586, P = 0.011), mode
of attempt (F = 7.228, P < 0.001) and psychiatric disorder (F = 11.218, P < 0.001)
with the suicidal intent score. The study has found a significant association
between the caregiver and suicidal intent score (F = 4.339, P = 0.006) which
needs to be researched further.
CONCLUSIONS
Our study showed significant association between the socio-demographic variables
like occupation, marital status, caregiver, mode of attempt, previous attempt and
psychiatric diagnosis with the suicidal intent scores of young adult suicide
attempters attending the suicide prevention clinic. This finding throws light to the
factors contributing to high suicidal intent among young adults. The suicidal rates
among the young adults are on the rise and we as the health professionals should
be aware of these factors which will help in preventing young adult suicides.
