Twenty five years of investigation on suicide at the head Offices of Epidemiological and Psychosocial Research from the Ramón de la Fuente National Institute of Psychiatry

Abstract:

Suicide is a multi-factorial problem with a fairly well-defined course, with different forms and categories of analysis and in some cases, objectives other than the mere loss of life. The goal is sometimes to attract attention, end suffering or take revenge on an authority figure. In Mexico, suicide is a public health problem since, according to the Health Secretariat reports, mortality rates due to this cause have increased in recent years. The importance of the problem as a trigger factor in early deaths requires research that will shed light on the elements that give rise to it, in order to design intervention and prevention strategies that will help to reduce its consequences. The aim of this study is to provide a review of articles focusing on the problem of suicide published by researchers at the Head Offices of Epidemiological and Psychosocial Research (in Spanish: DIEP) over the past twenty-five years. This will provide an overview of the themes, areas and units of analysis that have received most attention during this period at the Ramón de la Fuente National Institute of Psychiatry (INPRF). The discussion focuses on what has been developed to date as well as on aspects of the phenomenon that have yet to be studied. The study involved compiling and providing a descriptive analysis of articles published by DIEP researchers. The search for material was undertaken on the basis of bibliographic references from the Center for Information on Mental Health and Addictions (CISMAD). All the documents in which suicide, suicide attempts and suicidal thoughts were considered variables of interest were located. Once these had been obtained, they were reviewed on the basis of various aspects which, it was felt, could provide a brief perspective of the study in each case (year, authors, title, place where data were obtained, subject matter, population, focus, and variables and instruments used). A chart was drawn up with the groups of authors trained at different times, the aspect of suicide with which they were most concerned, the type of population they focused on, the main emphasis of their writings and the number of publications. Results show that between 1982 and 2003, DIEP researchers published 56 articles in which the issue of suicide had been included, either as the main variable of interest or as a secondary variable. Sixty-six per cent of the latter were undertaken using data from different types of population in Mexico City; 23% drew on information from representative samples or national sources, while 11% were based on subjects or sources from elsewhere. As for the subject or area of interest regarding suicide in each article, 30% of the studies concentrated on suicidal thoughts; 23% on suicide attempts; 16% on suicide attempts and suicidal thoughts; 13% on suicides actually committed and suicide attempts; 9% on suicides actually committed; 5% on suicides committed, suicide attempts and suicidal thoughts, while 4% focused on suicidal behavior in general at the epidemiological level. As for the units of analysis used in each case, 34% focused on teenagers, 29% on adults, 21% on documentary records, 11% on teenagers and adults, and 5% on children. All the articles reviewed utilized a psychosocial or an epidemiological approach or both. Five fairly well-defined groups were identified of researchers that have dealt with the problem of suicide from different perspectives and for different reasons. In most cases, attention focused on the problem of suicide, and in certain other cases, suicide-related issues were analyzed collaterally, since the article focused mainly on other phenomena. The first group was trained in the 1980s. Its main interest lay in suicides actually committed and in suicide attempts, which were analyzed in hospital settings with adult populations. The second group, which worked between 1991 and 1994, focused on the relationship between suicide attempts and alcohol consumption in adults admitted to hospital emergency rooms. The third group had two phases of work, the first was between 1994 and 1995, and the second in 1998. It focused mainly on junior high and high school students using surveys on substance abuse, in addition to surveys on psychiatric disorders on adults among the general population, in which suicidal thoughts were included tangentially. The fourth group, which undertook research between 1995 and 2001, was interested in suicide attempts and suicidal thoughts in teenagers and adults in the general population and emergency rooms. The last group has worked since 1994. Its main field of interest has been the problem of suicide (whether actual attempts or merely thoughts) among teenage junior and senior high school students.

Año de publicación:

2003

Keywords:

• Suicide attempts
• Suicidal thoughts
• MÉXICO
• suicide
• Historical review

Fuente:

scopus