Suicidal Intent in Young Adults Attending the Suicide Prevention Clinic at a Tertiary Care Centre in Kerala, India

BACKGROUND Suicide attempts in young adults in the age group 18 - 25 years have grown exponentially across the globe in the last three decades. Suicide is the third leading cause of death among young adults worldwide and is the second leading cause of death in 15 – 29-year-olds. The studies on the factors affecting suicidal intent among young adult suicide attempters are few from the Indian context and young adult group is of utmost importance. So, this study was done to estimate the suicidal intent among young adult suicide attempters and to assess the various factors associated with suicidal intent among young adults. METHODS The study was an analytical cross-sectional study, which was carried out at the Suicide Prevention Clinic of the Department of Psychiatry at a Tertiary Care Centre in Kerala, India over a period of 1 year from October 2015 to September 2016. The consecutive 160 young adult suicide attempters were interviewed. Beck’s suicide intent scale was used to assess the severity of suicide attempts. Statistical significance of socio-demographic factors and suicidal intent score was assessed by independent student t test and one way analysis of variance (ANOVA). RESULTS Out of the 160 participants, 50 (31.2 %) had low suicidal intent, 71 (44.4 %) had medium suicidal intent and 39 (24.4 %) had high suicidal intent. The study showed significant association between marital status (t = 2.515, P = 0.011), Occupation (F = 7.991, P < 0.001), previous suicide attempt (t = - 2.586, P = 0.011), mode of attempt (F = 7.228, P < 0.001) and psychiatric disorder (F = 11.218, P < 0.001) with the suicidal intent score. The study has found a significant association between the caregiver and suicidal intent score (F = 4.339, P = 0.006) which needs to be researched further. CONCLUSIONS Our study showed significant association between the socio-demographic variables like occupation, marital status, caregiver, mode of attempt, previous attempt and psychiatric diagnosis with the suicidal intent scores of young adult suicide attempters attending the suicide prevention clinic. This finding throws light to the factors contributing to high suicidal intent among young adults. The suicidal rates among the young adults are on the rise and we as the health professionals should be aware of these factors which will help in preventing young adult suicides. KEYWORDS Suicidal Intent, Young Adults, Suicide Prevention Clinic, Suicidal Behaviour, Kerala