High rate of suicide attempt and associated psychological traits in an isolated tribal population of North-East India.

BACKGROUND: Cases of suicide documented earlier all over the world reflect the presence of suicide behavior in primitive world at a higher rate compared to general urban population. The cause of such behavior is thought to be different among tribes and mental health was rarely presumed to be associated. In India, several ethnographic narratives described instances of suicides among several tribes, but evaluation of psychological traits were lacking. The present study on Idu Mishmi is an attempt to further validate earlier report of high rate of suicides among them and to evaluate psychological traits.

METHODS: Interview and administration of Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ) on 218 individuals comprised the data. Bi-variate analyses and linear multiple regression were done to evaluate psychological traits in suicide behavior.

RESULTS: In the Idu Mishmi Population suicide attempt (14.22%) was higher than urban population in general (0.4-4.2%) and females were at higher risk. Depression (8.26%) was comparable with earlier reports, whereas anxiety syndrome (6.42%), alcohol abuse (36.24%) and eating disorder like Binge eating (6.42%), Bulimia nervosa (1.38%) were also recorded in the population.

LIMITATIONS: Absence of psychiatry clinic and mechanism of recording suicide occurrences in remote tribal area is the basic limitation of the study.

CONCLUSION: Depression and gender turned out to be significant determinants of suicide attempt in the studied population, whereas alcohol abuse was not a significant factor.