Alcohol Intoxication and Suicide by Hanging in Poland

Epidemiology of Suicide by Hanging in Fars Province, Iran (2011-2019): A Population-based Cross-sectional Study

OBJECTIVES

Hanging is a common method of attempted suicide. This study investigated the epidemiological profile of attempted and completed suicides by hanging in southern Iran.

METHODS

This cross-sectional study was performed on 1167 suicide attempts by hanging between 2011 and 2019. All data related to suicide attempts by hanging were collected from the Fars Suicide Surveillance System. The trends in suicide cases and the mean age of attempted and completed suicides were plotted. The chi-square test was used to identify suicide-related factors. Crude rates of incidence, mortality, and standardized fatality during the study period were calculated. Finally, logistic regression was used to identify the predictors of death in individuals who attempted suicide.

RESULTS

The mean age of those who attempted suicide was 33.21±16.82 years; the majority were male (80.5%). The rate of attempted and completed suicide by hanging were 3.50 and 2.79 per 100 000 people, respectively. The case-fatality rate was calculated as 79.34%. The results of our study indicated an increasing trend in suicide attempts by hanging. The likelihood of death was 2.28 times higher in individuals with a previous history of suicide attempts and 1.85 times higher in those with a psychological disorder.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings of this study suggest an increasing trend in attempted and completed suicide by hanging, especially among individuals with a history of suicide attempts and psychological disorders. It is necessary to take action to reduce the rate of suicide attempts and identify the underlying causes of suicide attempts by hanging.

Suicide Attempts and Suicides as a Result of Poisoning and under the Influence of Xenobiotics in Poland in 1999-2020

BACKGROUND

The most common method of suicide in Poland is hanging, especially among men. However, women tend to overdose on medications to commit suicide. Considering suicide attempts, poisoning, which involves overdosing various substances, is the most commonly used method. The purpose of the present study was to analyze suicide attempts by intoxication, suicides, and substances that influenced the state of consciousness of suicide victims in Poland in the years covered by the study.

METHODS

A descriptive analysis was made based on the data obtained from the registers of the General Police Headquarters of Poland and the Statistics Poland for the years 1999-2020.

RESULTS

During the 21-year study period, 161,655 cases of suicide attempts were recorded in Poland, 106,169 of which resulted in suicides. Results showed that out of 14,660 self-poisoning suicide attempts, there were 2258 cases of suicide poisoning deaths in the analyzed study period. According to the data of the General Police Headquarters of Poland, the total number of suicides of all causes was 106,169. Self-poisoning suicides accounted for 2.1% of all cases of suicides.

CONCLUSION

Due to the distribution of suicide registration systems in Poland, data available in this area should be interpreted with caution.

Analysis of Suicide Methods and Substances Influencing the State of Consciousness of Their Victims in Poland

An integral part of the World Health Organization's (WHO) mental health action plan for 2013-2020 is suicide prevention, and a 10% reduction in the suicide rate. A key element of the preventive measures taken is, among other things, limiting access to means enabling and facilitating committing suicide. However, this requires detailed knowledge of community suicide patterns and preferences. Unfortunately, such information is not usually collected, and the recorded method of committing suicide is often imprecise and untrue, which means that such knowledge has limited application in presuicidal prophylaxis. The statistical data on suicides recorded as part of the Police Statistics in Poland during the years 2009-2019 was analyzed. The analysis included suicide deaths and suicide attempts, taking into account the suicide methods and substances influencing the state of consciousness of their victims. The number of suicides in Poland in the analyzed period tended to increase. The most common method of suicide was hanging, and alcohol was the substance influencing the state of consciousness of suicide victims. The statistics for 2017-2019 showed the presence of new methods of suicide, such as taking drugs other than hypnotics, intoxication with narcotic drugs, poisoning with designer drugs, suffocation and self-immolation, as well as new psychoactive substances affecting the state of consciousness of victims, i.e., drugs and narcotic drugs. The effectiveness of actions taken in Poland in the field of suicide prevention does not bring the desired effects, as evidenced by growing number of suicides. This low effectiveness is mainly due to the lack of a national suicide prevention strategy. The effectiveness of these activities may be improved by creating a uniform database of suicides, which is a source of reliable information which will allow the taking of actions aimed at limiting the availability of means enabling and facilitating the committing of suicide. The study aimed to analyze the types of suicide methods and substances influencing the state of consciousness of their victims in Poland in the years covered by the study.

Alcohol and the Risk of Railway Suicide

Suicide is one of the ten most common causes of death in the world. Of all deaths from suicide, 22% can be attributed to the use of alcohol, which means that every fifth suicide would not occur if alcohol were not consumed by the population. People under the influence of alcohol choose more radical and effective methods of dying by suicide, e.g., throwing themselves under a moving vehicle, such as a train. The presented analysis aimed to determine important risk factors affecting railway suicide in Poland and their relation to the state of alcohol intoxication of the victims, and the relationship between ethyl alcohol consumption and the phenomenon of suicide. Documentation obtained from the Department of Forensic Medicine at the Medical University of Warsaw, in the form of death registers and forensic medical records concerning examination and autopsy, was analyzed. This made it possible to identify suicide victims from among pedestrian victims of railway accidents recorded during the period under study. The research was carried out using unidimensional and multidimensional statistical analyses with IBM SPSS Statistics, version 25. Sober suicide victims were statistically significantly older than victims under the influence of alcohol; alcohol concentration was correlated with the age of the victims-the older the victims were, the higher the alcohol concentration. A significantly higher number of deaths attributed to suicide by sober victims was observed in autumn compared to other seasons. Multidimensional analysis showed a statistically significant effect of age and season on the probability of dying by suicide under the influence of alcohol-this probability decreases with the age of the victims and is also significantly lower in autumn. The observed relationship between age and the presence of alcohol in suicide victims can be the cause of railway suicides. Knowledge of the mechanisms of seasonal variability of suicidal behavior can help to develop effective strategies to prevent railway suicides. It is necessary to improve the system of reporting railway suicides, as only reliable statistics provide the possibility of assessing both the scale of the problem and the effectiveness of actions taken.