Citation

Peña Garcia I, Martin Gomez C, Gutierrez Fisac JL, Carpintero Padial MJ, Torija Moreno C, Alvarez Alvarez JR. An. Psiquatr. 1997; 13(8): 311-320.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1997, Arán Ediciones)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The phenomenon of suicide is a public health problem of primordial importance. The prevention of suicide requires an understanding of protective as well as risk factors, and the recognition of high risk groups. The official statistics don't allow us to come to valid conclusions, so, there is a demand for descriptive studies. We analyzed suicide mortality in Madrid Community during the years 1994 and 1995, using data from the Forensic Institute of Madrid. We review 594 cases autopsied (411 male and 183 female) in which death had supervened as consequience of a suicidal act. We analyse various epidemiological aspects (age, sex, marital status, labour situation, cohabitation, suicide techniques, hour, day and month of the death) of consummated suicides. Among the results there is a global rate of 6.00 suicides per annum per 100,000 inhabitants, with a ratio of 2.41 in favor of men. Older male have higher suicide rate. The risk of suicide is higher for people widowed (or divorced) than for married people. The most used suicidal procedure was precipitation (54.0%), followed by hanging (18.4%) and fire arm (8.8%). Our suicide rate was notabily higher than official statistics from the National Statistic Institute. Reasons for this discrepance are discussed emphatizing the role of suicide underrecording in the official statistics. Forensic Institute data are considered as the most precise source for suicide epidemiologic study in Spain. Copyright © 1997 ARAN EDICIONES, S. A.

Language: es

Keywords

Consummate suicide; Epidemiologic; Statistic