Suicide Among Adolescents: A Medico-legal Study at Tertiary Care Centre of Western Maharashtra, India

Abstract

Globally, suicide is the second leading cause of mortality among young people and is an important public health problem.The main aim of the study is to identify the pattern of suicide among adolescent age group and to suggest preventivemethods. This is a retrospective autopsy-based study from 01 June 2018 to 31 May 2019 conducted at the Department ofForensic Medicine, B. J. Government Medical College, Pune, Maharashtra, India. Total 84 cases of suicidal death amongadolescent (11 to 19 years) were recorded during the study period. Maximum number of cases (52.38 %) was observedin late adolescent age group (18–19 years) with Female predominance (70.23 %) with F:M ratio was 2.45:1. Hanging(79.76 %) was the most common method used for committing suicide and maximum adolescent (73.80%) preferred theirown residence for committing suicide. Love affair was observed as most common precipitating factor for committingsuicide (42.85 %) and other precipitating factors were quarrel between parents, depression and addiction, school relatedproblems, sex related problems, one sided love. The paper discussed different preventive methods, specific to adolescentage so as to help in identifying vulnerable adolescent.