2004, Number 2
Violencia: una revisión del tema dentro del marco de trabajo de investigación en el Instituto Nacional de Psiquiatría
Chávez HAM, Macías GLF, Palatto MH, Ramírez L
Full text
Language: Spanish
References: 12
Page: 15-20
PDF size: 130.20 Kb.
ABSTRACT
From the epidemic perspective, suicide appears as an international public health problem due to the remarkable increase of its incidence. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), in the year 2000, suicide had the greater percentage (49%) in the statistics of “deaths by intentional injuries”; followed by violence (32%) and war (19%).This source also notifies that in countries with population over 100 millions, Mexico is the country that shows the higher increase of “changes in age-standardized groups in specific intervals of time” (+61, 9% in period 81-83/93-95). Followed in descendent order by: India (+54%, period 80-95), Brazil (+13.2%, period 79-81/93-95), and the Russian Federation (+5.3%, period 80-82/96-98). The United States of America (-5.3%, period 80-82/95-97) and Japan (-14.3%, period 80-82/95-97) have shown decreasing rates.
The increase in the rates of suicide in Mexico has been registered by various studies, which also have proved that the States where those rates were the highest are: Veracruz, Mexico City and, in third place, Guanajuato.
Some specific sectors of Guanajuato State show an association of two phenomena: suicide and migration, basically migrants travelling to the United States of America and Canada, both countries with a high frequency of suicides. The information on suicide in Mexico come from sources such as local or international studies, and also from reports obtained through public institutions, the Instituto Nacional de Estadística, Geografía e Informática (INEGI), the Secretaría de Salud (SS) and the Procuraduría General de Justicia (PGJ). Nevertheless, the data given by these institutions show discrepancies in statistics, a fact due perhaps to differences in the classification criteria for deaths, and to registration and filing mistakes.
The aim of the present research was to collect and report epidemiological data on suicides and the characteristics of the suicidal events, in the State of Guanajuato, during the period between 1995 and 2001. To this purpuse the files of the PGJ in Guanajuato State were analyzed; these files contain detailed information about suicides and the suicidal act, as well as the transcription of suicidal notes, in case they be left. They also contain declarations and testimonies from people who are close (relatives, friends, acquaintances) to the suicidal victim.
The data gathered included socio-demographical information, migrant condition, variables related to the suicidal act, alcohol and drug use at the moment of the event, and the transcription of the suicidal note. The declarations and testimonies from the suicide acquaintances were kept for further studies.
The data-gathering lasted six months and was made by last semester students of the Faculty of Psychology.
Data were analyzed according to the State distribution of the PGJ that divides it into 4 zones: Leon, Irapuato, Celaya and San Miguel de Allende. Frequency analysis were made and for some variables, chi square statistical tests.
Of the 747 cases of death caused by suicide registered by the PGJ in Guanajuato, during the 1995 – 2001 period, 733 were analyzed because the lacking 13 files could not be located. From the total of cases 80.1% were men and 19.9%, women. The rank of age goes from 8 to 91 years. The average for men was 30 years and the mode 20 years; for women the average was 28 years and the mode 18 years old. This shows that suicide was committed at an earlier age by women than by men.
Only 10% of the whole had no schooling; almost half of the total had completed elementary studies and 21% had attained high school level. Besides, 30% of the people who committed suicide were employees and only 1.6% were professionals. Regarding the characteristics of the suicidal act, the place more used to committ it, was the suicide´s house (78%), mainly in the case of women (with significant difference) (p=.001). The suicide method used in most cases was different for both sexes: men preferred hanging (p=.001), and women poisoning (p=.001). Forty one per cent of the men had ingested alcohol before committing suicide and only 7.8% of the women. In addition, alcohol use was more frequent in the group of 35 to 44 years of age, and by those who were married. The use of other drugs was present in 13% of the total (no significant differences between sexes).
As to the migration phenomenon, most of migrant suicides were between 20 and 34 years old. The rate of non-migrant suicides was 4:1 (4 men committed suicide for every suicidal women) and it changed in the migrant group to 3:2. This migration phenomenon is data included: returning migrants, people who were going to leave Mexico in the near future (one day or week later) and also people who had one or more close relatives living as migrant laborers in the northern countries.
Finally, other differences found when comparing the migrant group with the non-migrants suicidal group are: the greater use of firearms registered as suicidal method (p=.001) and the higher percentage of psychiatric medication.
On the other hand, the higher frequency of suicides was registered in the month of May (13%), and the lower percentage in October (5.7%).
State regionalization, showed the higher percentage of suicides in Celaya (254 cases), and the lower corresponded to San Miguel de Allende (103 cases).
It may be concluded that in the State of Guanajuato the phenomenon of suicide presents alarming peculiarities: more risked groups include children, adolescents and young people (this sample found 42 suicidal children under 14 years old).
Also, considering that migration is the most important social phenomenon in Guanajuato State, we may observe that it has contributed to modify the patterns of suicide of some population groups. This is shown by the increasing suicidal women percentage and the most frequent use of firearms, drug and alcohol usage, and psychiatric medication; a possible explanation to this has to do with the cultural shock of the migration process.
Although it is difficult to consider the suicidal phenomenon as a consequence of drug abuse and vice versa, from the current frequency of suicide cases involved with drugs, at least at the moment of death, we may observe that this circumstance increases the complexity and difficulty of the suicide problem.
Finally, we may stress that obtaining information through the files of the PGJ demonstrated to be fruitful, because they have important elements to consider in the suicide research. Data as the transcription of suicide notes, the declaration of relatives or close friends of the suicide, and the detailed description of the suicidal event, aren’t registered by other instances. Nevertheless, it is urgent to combine the efforts of the institutions related to the study of the suicidal behaviors, in order to systematize and to unify the official statistics. This will optimize the registration forms and add some variables aimed to favor research purposes.
REFERENCES