A STUDY ON THE PATTERN OF SUICIDE IN KARACHI PAKISTAN

Suicide is a serious public health issue. It affects families and in large, societies badly. Suicide is a common problem of the world, even greater in the developed world. Suicide rates are on rise; alarming situation is that it is more common phenomenon in young age group. Between ages 15 – 24 years it is tripled in past few decades in USA. Its causes are complex and culture oriented. Pakistan is no difference but negligence in reporting system makes it unreliable. Karachi is a big cosmopolitan city of Pakistan reflecting all communities and ethnic groups. The present study was conducted in Karachi with objecttives: to graduate the pattern of suicide in Karachi, and its association with gender, residence, age group, marital status, employment status and monthly income. Materials and Methods: This is a descriptive analytical study which is based on five years Police record, taken from 18 Towns of Karachi. Fifty four Police Stations, three from each Town were randomly selected. Purposefully ten suicide cases were taken from each Police Station. Forty cases were rejected as having incomplete information. A total of 500 suicide cases from police record were taken. Further 200 attempted cases of suicide from National Toxic Centre, JPMC were included making a total of 700 suicide cases. Results: There were 2.46 suicide cases per 100,000 population per year. The mean age was 28.19 years in males (SD = 8.79) and in females it was 26.07 years (SD = 8.25). The suicide was committed mostly by males (n = 450). There has been continuous increase in suicide from 2001 to 2005. Married (48.57%) and young people (26%) committed more suicide. Regarding occupation, unemployed were on top (40.1%). Highest suicide rate was in urban areas (71%). Hanging was the main method of suicide in males (35.7%) and in females it was poisoning (45.5%). There was no significant association of gender and marital status with suicide group (P = 0.11 and P = 0.061 respectively). However residence, age and employment status showed significant association; P = 0.00, P = 0.02 and P = 0.03 respectively.