Hyderabad: Ahead of World Suicide Prevention Day that falls on September 10, the Hyderabad Psychiatric Society (HPS) has demanded that a psychiatrist be involved in the emergency treatment so that attempt-to-suicide cases can be attended to after the physical body heals.
Around 50 attempt-to-suicide cases are received at government and private hospitals in the city daily. HPS has found that about 15 cases are reported daily at Gandhi and OGH. While doctors there refer the patients for psychiatric treatment, hardly any of them visits the Erragada Mental Hospital for the same.
Senior psychiatrist Dr Preethi Swaroop said, “Cases of attempt-to-suicide can’t be taken lightly. These are people with a prolonged history of depression and disappointment, which will make them attempt suicide again. They need to be treated, but after spending so much money in the hospital as well as bearing the stigma, many families are not willing to take up treatment with professionals. While families are scared, they fail to realise that the individual requires help and it will help him/her heal from the psychological pain that he/she continues to undergo.”
A majority of suicides are said to be “impulsive suicides” where a particular incident acts as a trigger and the individual, who has a huge “backlog of depression episodes, anxiety disorders, financial problems, debts and other personal problems” gives himself up and looks at death as an escape route. There has been a 15 per cent increase in the rate of suicides as compared to 2005, when 1,13,000 cases were reported. In 2014, the National Crime Records Bureau recorded 1,31,666 cases, ranking India as the 11th country in the world in terms of suicide. The Telangana Psychiatric Association, however, has disputed the NCRB figures, alleging that they are underreporting cases and there is a need for a more scientific method to collect accurate data.
The WHO meanwhile states that 21.1 persons per lakh are committing suicide in India, which is an alarming number. Suicide is the second leading cause of death in India and maximum cases are found to be in the most productive age group of 15 to 29 years.
Dr Anitha Are, clinical psychologist at Citizens Hospital, said, “In student suicides, we have seen that parents have too high expectations which the child is not able to cope with and due to which they commit suicide. So, it is important that educational institutions focus on the emotional quotient and not just intelligent quotient.” Senior consultant psychiatrist Dr. Naresh Vadlamani said that connectedness is one of the crucial methods in which suicide can be prevented.”
