A Retrospective Study of Suicidal Deaths at District Hospital, Tumkur

Suicide is one of the causes of unnatural deaths. The pattern of suicide and the incidence of suicide vary from country to country. Society plays a major role in occurrence of suicides. To know the pattern of suicides a retrospective study of the autopsies conducted at district hospital Tumkur between the years 2006 - 2010 were considered. Of the total 2288 autopsies conducted during this period, 1155 deaths were due to suicides. The incidences of suicidal deaths are more in male than female with the ratio of 1.6: 1. The preferred modes of suicides were poisoning (448), hanging (268), burns (200), drowning (140) and train accidents (99).