Tendencias en los patrones de suicidio en Colombia: 2004 a 2018
Autor: Lemus Aponte, Margi Yadira
Asesor: Calvo Gomez, José Manuel
Fecha: 2020-10-14
Programa: Bogotá - Medicina - Especialidad en Psiquiatría
Facultad: Facultad de Medicina

Resumen: Suicidal behavior is a sequence of events called the suicidal process. This occurs progressively in many cases and begins with thoughts and ideas that follow from suicidal plans and culminate in one or multiple attempts to complete suicide. According to the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10), suicide is defined as “Death caused by self-inflicted injury reported as intentional”. (MINSALUD, 2015).
Many are the factors that lead a person to commit suicide. Within which are social, psychological or cultural characteristics, however, the stigma that accompanies suicide or mental disorders prevents many people from seeking help. Mental disorders, chronic pain, alcoholism, chronic diseases, emotional imbalances, violence, and substance abuse are the main risk factors for committing suicide (T. O., Antonio, Carlos, &amp; Cejudo, 2014). Other contributing factors are economic difficulties and psychosocial factors (Gianfranco Alicandro, March 2019) .1
Sexual orientation as a risk factor for committing suicide was evaluated in Denmark, the conclusion of which was that in men with a probable orientation other than heterosexual, they present an 8 times greater risk than heterosexual men, however this difference is not appreciated between the women (Robin M., Susan D., Jorn, &amp; Vickie M., 2011) 1.
For this reason, awareness-raising efforts have been made on this issue, so that people who are susceptible to this behavior are assessed by mental health professionals and the appropriate monitoring and interventions are made for each case.
Over the years, changes in suicide behavior have been observed worldwide and in general the outlook is not encouraging. The numbers are increasing, it is observed how suicide in children and adolescents has grown. Worldwide, there are changes in suicide rates with a tendency to increase, with men being the most affected. Other notable changes observed are: the choice of the suicide method, the gender with the most cases, and the ages at which no cases were previously reported.
In Colombia there are changes in the last 20 years in suicide behavior. As for the departments that initially registered the highest rates, they are no longer the same, and neither is the method chosen to perform it. This just to mention some of the aspects that have changed over time. Suicidal behavior has been an important problem in our country for several decades, since it has been found that between 1964 and 1967 the rate increased from 8.96 to 12.18 / 100,000 inhabitants (Vásquez R, 1993).