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Abstract
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Suicide has been known in all cultures, every region and ethnic group. Throughout history, the first recorded suicides were committed by Pyramus and Thisbe, who were lovers that died in Babylonia, Persia, around 2000 BC .
In 2016, the highest suicide rate in the world belonged to Guyana (30/100 000 p.a.), followed by Lesotho and Russia. Kazakhstan, an Asian country, filled the sevenths place (22.8/100 000 p.a.).
For more than a millennium, Islam and Christianity considered suicide to be a sinful practice. In the West, in the early 19th Century, the belief that suicide was a religious problem was replaced by the belief that suicide was a medical problem and could be prevented by treatment. In 2014, WHO described that belief as a “myth” (1); however, studies continued to focus on mental disorders as the primary etiological factors and experts recommend treatment for its prevention. A related belief is that suicide risk factors can be managed by health professionals, and thereby all those people about to commit suicide can be identified with certainty (2). It is also assumed that once a high-risk individual has been identified, suicide prevention is assured.
Are mental disorders the sole trigger of suicide?
Mental disorders are painful, and there is no doubt that people with mental disorders complete suicide more often than those without mental disorders. However, many people without mental disorders also complete suicide ...
Language: en |