DOI: 10.36347/sjams.2017.v05i11.056

Pages: 4596-4599

Intentional self-poisoning is a common method of committing suicide globally as well as in India. The present study attempts to analyse successful cases of suicidal intake of poisons. By a retrospective study, all the data recorded during autopsy examination associated with competed intentional self-poisoning from 2016 January to 2017 June in a teaching hospital in central Kerala was collected. The demographic variables and the suicides’ outcomes were analyzed using the Chi-Square test, and Fisher Exact Test. Totally, 28 cases of completed suicide by poisoning were evaluated. The youngest individual in the sample was aged 28 years and oldest 82 years. There was a male preponderance in our sample with 86.2% of the victims being male. In 17 (3 females and 14 males) of the 28 cases, the state Chemical Examiner’s Laboratory had provided a positive report. These cases were used to analyse the association between the type of poison on one hand and the gender and age of the suicide victim on the other hand. The predisposing factors were alcoholism, psychiatric issues and household issues. The study indicated that the commonly used poisons are accessible to individuals of all ages and both genders. The consumption of none of the poisons encountered in the study was associated with any specific age or sex. Alcoholism was the most commonly encountered predisposing factor and it was seen only in males, but the statistical association between gender and alcoholism as a predisposing factor was not significant.