Citation

Gorn SB, González-Forteza C, Icaza MEMM. Rev. Mexic. Psicolog. 2000; 17(1): 55-63.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2000, Sociedad Mexicana de Psicología)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This article presents the results from a study conducted with a representative sample of women living in four low-income communities in southern Mexico City. The objective of the study were the following: learn the prevalence of suicide ideation, suicide attempts, and identify sociodemographic characteristics and affective and anxiety disorders that increase the risk of suicidal ideations and attempts. We conducted home interviews with one person older than 15 years of age per selected home. We requested the voluntary participation of the selected individual and we described the objectives of the research. The obtained results indicated a high prevalence of suicidal ideation, with about 7 out of 100 women having at least once thought about killing themselves. The prevalanece of suicide attempts in the studied population was of 3.6%. Of the women who thought about killing themselves, 36.2% reported depressive symptoms, 29.6% dysthemia, 17.6% phobias. In women who had atempted to kill themselves, the disorders reported with higher frequency were depressive disorders and dysthemia, and in smaller proportions, phobias and other anxiety disorders. We conducted logistic regressions to determine which variables could be considered risk factors for suicide ideations and attempts. The variables identified as risk factors for suicide ideation as well as for attempts were to report depressive disorders (11.62 times higher risk for suicide ideation and 6.9 for attempts) and to be single (1.8 times higher risk for thinking to commit suicide and 1.4 for attempting to kill themselves).

Language: en

Keywords

Depression; Phobias; Poverty; Suicide attempt; Suicide ideation; Women