How much self-poisoning attempts are visible in Iran?

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Psychiatry
• Toxicology

Background:

• Stigma associated with suicide attempts (SA) prevents individuals from seeking help from friends and family.
• Increased awareness of an individual's SA can potentially resolve their problems and decrease SA rates.
• Deliberate self-poisoning (DSP) is the most common method of SA in Iran, making its visibility a critical area of study.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine the degree of SA visibility specifically through deliberate self-poisoning (DSP) in Iran.
• To identify factors influencing the visibility of suicide attempts via DSP.

Main Methods:

• A study was conducted on individuals who attempted suicide by DSP and were referred to a western Iran poisoning center (April-June 2016).
• Interviews were conducted by same-gender interviewers experienced in role-playing to enhance compliance and data accuracy.
• Multivariate Poisson Regression was employed to determine the factors affecting SA visibility.

Main Results:

• Out of 100 subjects, 10 denied SA. The self-poisoning visibility factor (SVF) was 26.6% (95% CI: 21.7-31.5), decreasing to 23.9% (95% CI: 19.7-28.1) when including those who denied SA.
• Highest SVF values were observed in cases involving toxins, alcohol, and illegal drugs.
• Multivariate analysis indicated that SVF increased with age (IRR=1.03), history of SA (IRR=1.18), and being married (IRR=1.70).

Conclusions:

• Lower SVF values for DSP suggest that individuals often do not seek help or disclose their SA intentions.
• Increased visibility of SA is inversely correlated with SA and repetition rates.
• Preventing and reducing SA repetition is a key strategy to enhance SA visibility.