Suicidal behavior in Indian adolescents
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Diana Samuel
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Leo Sher
Abstract
Suicide is both a public and mental health problem, and is a leading cause of deaths, especially among adolescents. Two factors that contribute to the decision of adolescents to commit suicide are having a primary mood disorder and/or substance use. In the Indian culture, the family unit has both a positive and negative impact on suicide. The family serves as a protective factor that provides a strong support for the individual, but alternately creates an inseparable individual when seeking mental health care, which often complicates the situation. Due to the stigma, Indians typically perceive having a mental illness as shameful. Religion is integral to the Indian culture so much so that individuals often use herbal remedies, seek help from religious leaders, and attend religious establishments prior to obtaining a mental health evaluation in those that are subsequently deemed as mentally ill. Despite the fact that suicides are underreported and misdiagnosed in India, it is known that the highest rates are among those <30 years old. The methods most commonly used to commit suicide in India include the ingestion of poison (often pesticides), hanging, burning, and drowning. When immigrating, Indians tend to switch the methods they use to commit suicide from ingestion of poison to hanging, which may reflect a lack of available poisonous substances or the influence of the host culture. Considering the high suicide rates in adolescents, the importance of providing psychoeducation, restricting access to lethal means, and promoting social integration in immigrants are various ways by which suicides in Indian adolescents can be avoided.
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©2013 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin Boston
Artikel in diesem Heft
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- Low testosterone levels may be associated with suicidal behavior in older men while high testosterone levels may be related to suicidal behavior in adolescents and young adults: a hypothesis
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- Original Articles
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Artikel in diesem Heft
- Masthead
- Masthead
- Editorial
- Education of health professionals about adolescent psychiatry
- Review Articles
- Educating medical professionals about suicide prevention among military veterans
- Ecstasy use and serotonin syndrome: a neglected danger to adolescents and young adults prescribed selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors
- Child sexual abuse and the pathophysiology of suicide in adolescents and adults
- Suicidal behavior in Indian adolescents
- Use of antidepressants for major depressive disorder in children and adolescents: clinical considerations
- Educating health care trainees and professionals about suicide prevention in depressed adolescents
- Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and dual disorders. Educational needs for an underdiagnosed condition
- Brain structural and functional changes in adolescents with psychiatric disorders
- Dating violence and suicidal behavior in adolescents
- Low testosterone levels may be associated with suicidal behavior in older men while high testosterone levels may be related to suicidal behavior in adolescents and young adults: a hypothesis
- Military sexual trauma as a determinant in the development of mental and physical illness in male and female veterans
- American juvenile justice system: history in the making
- The underexamined association between posttraumatic stress disorder, medical illness and suicidal behavior
- Prevention of suicidal behavior in adolescents with post-traumatic stress disorder
- Bullying, psychiatric pathology and suicidal behavior
- Original Articles
- Educating medical students about adolescent maltreatment
- Cannabis use, addiction risk and functional impairment in youth seeking treatment for primary mood or anxiety concerns
- Does the physician density affect suicide rates among adolescents and young adults?
- Case Report
- Buprenorphine in the treatment of non-suicidal self-injury: a case series and discussion of the literature
