SUICIDE ATTEMPTS IN A NIGERIAN MILITARY SETTING

Objectives: To describe the characteristics of patients who attempted suicide in a militarysetting and to examine the differences between the suicide attempters and a group of nonsuicide,affective disorder patients.Design: Fifty one consecutive cases of suicide attempts were studied using a questionnairewhich inquired about demographic characteristics and suicide related issues such as methodof attempt used and giving a notice. The suicide attempt group was then compared with acontrol group who had no history of attempted suicide.Setting: Department of Psychiatry, Military Hospital, Yaba, Lagos, Nigeria, which is a 500-bed military general hospital.Subjects: Fifty one attempted suicide patients. Intervention reports on intervention methodsapplied were not within the scope of this report.Main outcome measures: These were also not within the scope of the present study.Results: Suicide attempt patients constituted 0.37% of all admissions during a five-yearperiod, and 60.8% of them were under the age of 30 years. The numbers of male and femalepatients were approximately the same. Depression and acute stress reaction were thecommonest diagnoses. While military dependants most commonly ingested substances intheir suicide attempts, military personnel most often used more violent methods includinghanging and self-stabbing, but none used firearms. Compared with non suicide patients,suicide attempt ones were more likely to be unmarried and to have a family history of mentaldisorder but less likdy to have lost a parent through death before the age of 18 years.Conclusions: The need for a more controlled access to substances capable of being used forself- destruction was highlighted. The need for emergency room doctors to become moreskilful in the identification and assessment of suicide attempt patients was also emphasised