DOI: 10.36347/sjams.2015.v03i01.003

Pages: 10-11

Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. The most commonly used method of suicide varies including hanging, pesticide poisoning, and burns. In this retrospective study, cases autopsied during the period 1st January 2011 to 31st December 2013 were analyzed at the Department of Forensic Medicine & Toxicology, AIMS, B G Nagar, and Karnataka. In the present study total numbers of autopsied cases during 2011 to 2013 were 323. In that manner of death was suicide in 22 cases. Poisoning was the common method of suicide because of easy availability of pesticides in rural area. In the rural areas, males commit two to three times more often than females, but females attempt suicide four times more often while males use more lethal means to end their lives. Suicide prevention is a term used for the collective efforts to reduce the incidence of suicide through preventive measures. Reducing access to methods, such as firearms or toxins reduces the risk of suicide.