ผู้วิจัย/Authors: T. Maniam

ชื่อเรื่อง/Title: Epidemiology of suicide in Malaysia.

แหล่งที่มา/Source: The 1st Asia Pacific Regional Conference of The International Association for Suicide Prevention (AISP), 6-8 October 2004, The Imperial Queen's Park Hotel, Bangkok Thailand, Page 20.

รายละเอียด / Details:

Good statistics are vital for proper planning of mental health services, especially services relating to suicide prevention. Unfortunately suicide data for Malaysia are very incomplete and do not reflect the true state of affairs. An earlier study in 1995 and two subsequent studies in 2002 showed that reporting of suicides continues to be problematic with a large proportion of suicides being reported as either accidental deaths or undetermined causes, Malaysia has a heterogeneous population with uneven distribution of ethnic groups; hence studies in hospital and small community studies do not reflect the real state of affairs nation-wide. Whatever available data there are indicate that the suicide rate is probably between 10 to 12 per 100,000 persons. The Indian ethnic group predominates in all the published studies. The suicide rate among the Malay ethnic group, which is almost entirely Muslim, has traditionally been very low. However there is evidence that this has gradually been increasing to about 3 times the rate it used to be 30 years ago both at the national level (1995, 2002) as well as in the Kuala Lumpur urban area (2004). This is thought to be due to increasing urbanization of the Malay people and the consequent loosening of social and family ties as well as the weakening of religious influence over people’s lives. Another new phenomenon is the increasing reports of suicides by carbon monoxide poisoning and jumping off buildings, both following financial difficulties as a result of borrowing form loan sharks at exorbitant interest rates, which leads to vicious threats against the borrower and his family members. A number of highly publicized suicides have led to actions against the money-lending business. A National suicide prevention program has now been formulated and has been incorporated as part of the violence and injury prevention program of the Ministry of Health.

Keywords: suicide, psychiatry, mental health service, Malaysia, suicide prevention, epidermiolgy, epidermic, prevalence,

ปีที่เผยแพร่/Year: 2004

Address: Dept of Psychiatry National University of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur

Code: 2004000081

ISSN/ISBN: -

Country of publication: Thailand.

Language: English.

Category: Abstract Paper.

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