A Comparative Study of The Causes and Methods of Suicide Lead to Death Referred to Ilam Legal Medicine Center in 2004- 2009

Suicide is one of the major health problems in our country particularly in Ilam province. The aim of this study was a comparative study of the causes and methods of suicide lead to deaths referred to Ilam Coroner in 2004- 2009. This study was a retrospective cross-sectional study; the data were collected by the check list. After coordination to the medico legal 581 cases of suicide lead to death over a six-year period from 2004 to 2010 were extracted and the data were analyses by SPSS software. Results showed that about half (47. 9%) of all suicide cases related to the age group 16-25 years، (51. 5%) were men and the rest (48. 5%) were women. The highest frequency was housewives 38. 2% and jobless 16. 4%. The Highest rate of suicide lead to death among cities was for Ilam city with almost half of the (48. 9%)، then Shirvanchardavol with 38. 2% and the lowest rate was Abdanan with 5. 3%. Most methods of committed suicide in Ilam were self-Immolation with oil 46. 26%، hanging out 28. 4% and firearms 13. 2%. The same pattern is seen in most cities except Darehshahr that poisoning with toxic was the dominant method of attempting suicide. During the six-year period of studied، throughout the all years burning has been more than hanging out except 2007 that frequency of hanging out has been higher. The overall trend of Suicide has been increase during the study Our findings show that the suicide death is increasing and has not changed much in the pattern of suicide attempts، so It is necessary to prevent this social problem by implemented mental health education initiative for young people، especially vulnerable groups.