Teenage Suicides: A Retrospective Study in Hyderabad Region, Andhra Pradesh

The teen age is the period of transition between childhood and adult. Biologically it is marked by onset of puberty. After puberty a person becomes sexually matured and could potentially be a mother or father of a child. Socially teenage is marked by an increasing independence from parents as the young person's prepare to leave to complete his or her education, to form sexual partners and to seek some employment. Death is however, inevitable for any human being. A person being born alive will die naturally after certain age, but life may end unnaturally at any time due to accident, homicide or by committing suicide.

A considerable number of suicidal deaths occurred among teenagers in Hyderabad area, which are subjected for postmortem examination at mortuary of osmania general hospital, Hyderabad.

The present study is done to know the reasons for suicidal deaths and the preventive measures to be taken to reduce the same amongst the teenagers.

out of 168(3.51%) teenage suicides 146(86.91%) were in the age between 16–19 yrs, among that 111(66%) were female.148 (88.09%) were unmarried Most of them (48.81%) are from rural areas. People of both lower and middle socio economic status have taken the major number (98.3%) in the total number of suicides. Most of the people (38.09%) have chosen self-immolation as the mean for suicide.

Considerable number of deaths due to teenage suicides occurred during the period of this study. Females outnumbered males in contrast to the studies made in the western countries. Late teenagers are most vulnerable than early teenagers.