Citation

Odabasi AB, Türkmen N, Fedakar R, Tumer AR. Turk. J. Med. Sci. 2009; 39(6): 917-922.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2009, Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey)

DOI

10.3906/sag-0904-5

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Aim: We studied the patterns of suicide in forensic autopsies performed in Bursa province of Turkey to determine gender differences, incidence of suicide, subgroups of the population most vulnerable to,such deaths, and suicide methods used. Materials and methods: Nine hundred fifty-five death cases due to suicide underwent forensic autopsy between 1996 and 2005 in Bursa were included into the study. All of the cases were analyzed in terms of age, gender, and method of suicide, time of year, and alcohol use. Results were subjected to discriminant analyses using SPSS 11.0. Results: There were 955 cases, with 682 males (12-95 years; mean, 41.2 years) and 273 females (10101 years; mean, 33.1 years). For both genders, the most common method was hanging, accounted for 51.6% of the cases. Firearm injuries were more frequent in males than in females while insecticide poisoning, falling from height, and drug poisoning were more commonly used methods in females compared to males (P < 0.001), following hanging. Conclusion: In our study there was a significant difference between men and women in terms of suicide age and suicide method. More research studies are needed on gender differences in suicidal behavior to develop prevention strategies.