Assessment of Suicidal Intent.

BACKGROUND: Suicide and suicidal attempt are an important cause of mortality and denotes severe morbidity among the population. Successful suicide attempt is associated with previous suicide attempts. Identifying factors in suicide attempters will help in formulating a comprehensive response to these issues.

OBJECTIVE: To identify the sub group who are more vulnerable and the factors associated with this group.

SETTING AND DESIGN: A cross sectional observational study of this sub group was carried out.

MATERIAL AND METHODS: study was conducted on patients who were referred to the Psychiatry department for attempted suicide. They were assessed to identify those with high suicidal intent and study the factors associated with high suicidal intent.

STATISTICS: Epiinfo by CDC was used to analyze the results.

RESULTS: High intent was associated with history of psychiatric illness, history of previous attempts and family history of suicidal attempts.

CONCLUSIONS: A sub group was identified which had a high intent and possibly higher chance of repeating an attempt.