Abstract

Objective: Suicide is defined as intentionally killing one’s own. According to the World Health Organization, each year more than a million people kill themselves in the world. Two percent of all deaths in the world are secondary to committing suicide. According to 2011 year statistics in our country, 2677 people committed suicide and crude suicide rate was found to be 3.62%. In this study, our aim is to demonstrate the characteristics of the patients who have commited suicide and have been admitted to the emergency room in the province of Sanliurfa.

Methods: This is a retrospective study. In this study, we included suicide attempters who were admitted to the emergency room of the Balıklıgöl State Hospital of Şanlıurfa. The clinical and phenomenological features of these individuals were collected by using their medical records.

Results: In 2011, 227 people were admitted to emergency room due to suicide attempt. Among them 177 (78%) were female and 78 (22%) male. Fifty-seven percent of the patients were aged in between 15 and 24 years and 51% were married. Receiving high-dose medication was found to be most common form of suicide. The most common reported cause for suicide was family problems (37.9%).

Conclusions: In this study we found that more than half of the suicide attempters who have applied to emergency room were married and aged between the 15 and 24 years. Therefore, we suggest that family problems are important risk factors for suicide attempts in this area. The family problems reported as an important cause for suicide attempt in the present study also support this suggestion. In addition to social factors like family problems and spousal problems depression, borderline personality, physical and sexual traumas, psychiatric disorders such as impulsivity are also important causes of suicide attempts. In conclusion, when all the results of our study taken into account and compared with those from other regions of Turkey we suggest that marital state as married, younger age, lower level of education, and family problems are associated with suicide attempts. Some precautions that will be taken by authorized institutions may be effective to reduce suicide attempt rates.

Key words: suicide attempt, suicide, risk factors, emergency department