Epidemiología del suicidio en el Estado de Guanajuato

SUMMARY 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 8082/96-98). 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 Estadistica, Geografia e Informatica (INEGI), the Secretaria de Salud (SS) and the Procuraduria 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

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