Citation

Jacob KS. Natl. Med. J. India 2017; 30(3): 155-158.

Affiliation

Department of Psychiatry, Christian Medical College, Vellore 632002, Tamil Nadu, India.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, New Delhi All India Institute of Medical Sciences)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

28937004

Abstract

Suicide is a complex phenomenon, often linked to environment. Despite the identification of many social, cultural, economic and political correlates and risk factors, psychiatry continues to argue for curative solutions based on the reductionistic biomedical model, rather than support public health measures to manage the larger sociocultural, economic and political context. While psychiatry and curative medicine help many people, survival of the human body is best explained by the materialist explanation that locates the variation in health and longevity to tangible resources. There is no single, simple or straightforward solution to reducing population suicide rates; specific mental health interventions are unlikely to impact secular trends in the rates of suicide.

Language: en