Open J Psychiatry Allied Sci. 2025 Dec 25. Epub ahead of print.

A study on suicide attempts and psychiatric comorbidities in young adults attending tertiary care medical centre in North East India.

Chatterjee M, Choudhury HA, Nath K.

Abstract

Background: Suicide attempts are serious public health hazard across the modern world. It ranked as the third leading cause of death among young adults aged 15-29 years. Suicidal behaviour has become a significant public health concern, especially among the young age group. So, it is necessary to understand the magnitude of the problem and multiple factors associated with it in order to initiate suicide prevention programmes. Aims and objectives: To evaluate the various sociodemographic variables, modes of suicidal attempt, and psychiatric comorbidities in young adults with suicide attempts. Methodology:  It was a hospital-based cross-sectional, observational study. Samples were selected from the patients in the age group of 15-29 years, attending the Department of Psychiatry, Silchar Medical College and Hospital, Silchar, Assam, India in accordance to the fulfilment of inclusion and exclusion criteria during the period of six months. They were interviewed and assessed using semi-structured questionnaires to record the sociodemographic data, the tenth revision of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD-10) to look for any psychiatric comorbidities and Beck’s Suicide Intent Scale (SIS) for assessing suicide risk. Pearson’s Chi-Square and Fischer’s Exact tests as well as multinomial logistic regression were used for the statistical analysis. Results: Findings indicated that poisoning was the most common mode of suicide attempt in both males and females. Around 55% patients have psychiatric comorbidities, most common being depressive episode. Conclusions: The highest prevalence of suicide attempts were among the age group 15-19 years.

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