Articles

The Epidemiology of Suicide Behaviors among the Countries of the Eastern Mediterranean Region of WHO: a Systematic Review

Abstract

This systematic review aimed to help better to understand the epidemiology of suicidal behaviors among Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR) countries. The PubMed, EMR medex, Scopus, PsychInfo, ISI, and IMEMR were searched with no language limitation for papers on the epidemiology of suicidal behaviors in the general population, published up to August 2013. A total of 13 articles were reviewed. The incidence (per 100.000) of committed suicide ranged from 0.55 to 5.4. The lifelong prevalence of attempted suicide, suicidal plan and thoughts were 0.72-4.2%, 6.2-6.7%, and 2.9-14.1%, respectively. The figures for suicide are higher than those officially reported. Suicide behaviors' statistics is susceptible to underestimation presumably due to the socio-cultural, religious and legal barriers, not to mention the lack of well-organized registries and methodologically sound community-based surveys.

Shirazi HR, Hosseini M, Zoladl M, et al. Suicide in the Islamic Republic of Iran: an integrated analysis from 1981 to 2007. East Mediterr Health J 2012;18(6):607-13.

Suicide prevention (SUPRE). WHO. (Accessed in March 2014, 15, athttp://www.who.int/mental_health/prevention/suicide/).

Kessler R, Berglund P, Borges G, et al. rends in suicide ideation, plans, gestures, and attempts in the United States, 1990–1992 to 2001–2003. JAMA 2005;293(20):2487-95.

Karam EG, Hajjar RV, Salamoun MM. Suicidality in the Arab World Part I: Community Studies. Arab J Psychiatry 2007;18(2):99-107.

Khan MM, Naqvi H, Thaver D, et al. Epidemiology of suicide in Pakistan: determining rates in six cities. Arch Suicide Res 2008;12(2):155-60.

Shah A. Some critical methodological issues in the secondary analysis of world health organization data on elderly suicide rates. J Inj Violence Res 2009;1(1):7-13.

Karam EG, Hajjar RV, Salamoun MM. Suicidality in the Arab World part II: community studies. Arab J Psychiatry. 2008;19(1):1-24.

Abdel Moneim WM, Yassa HA, George SM. Suicide Trends in Upper Egypt. J Forensic Sci 2012;57(5):1247-51.

Agoub M, Moussaoui D, Kadri N. Assessment of suicidality in a Moroccan metropolitan area. J Affect Disord 2006;90(2-3):223-6.

Al Ansari A, Hamadeh RR, Ali MK, et al. Suicide in Bahrain in the last decade. Crisis 2007;28(1):11-5.

Bertolote JM, Fleischmann A, De Leo D, et al. Suicide attempts, plans, and ideation in culturally diverse sites: the WHO SUPRE-MISS community survey. Psychol Med 2005;35(10):1457-65.

Dervic K, Amiri L, Niederkrotenthaler T, et al. Suicide rates in the national and expatriate population in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Int J Soc Psychiatry 2012;58(6):652-6.

Gad ElHak SA, El-Ghazali AM, Salama MM, et al. Fatal suicide cases in Port Said city, Egypt. J Forensic Leg Med 2009;16(5):266-8.

Khan MM, Ali Hyder A. Suicides in the developing world: a Case study from Pakistan. Suicide Life Threat Behav 2006;36(1):76-81.

Malakouti SK, Nojomi M, Bolhari J, et al. Prevalence of suicide thoughts, plans and attempts in a community sample from Karaj, Iran. Community Ment Health J 2009;45(1):37-41.

Mohammadi MR, Ghanizadeh A, Rahgozart M, et al. Suicidal attempt and psychiatric disorders in Iran. Suicide Life Threat Behav 2005;35(3):309-16.

Saberi-Zafaghandi M, Hajebi A, Eskandarieh S, et al. Epidemiology of suicide and attempted suicide derived from the health system database in the Islamic Republic of Iran: 2001–2007. East Mediterr Health J 2012;18(8):836-41.

Saeed A, Bashir MZ, Khan D, et al. Epidemiology of suicide in Faisalabad. J Ayub Med Coll Abbottabad 2002;14(4):34-7.

Sharif-Alhoseini M, Rasouli M, Saadat S, et al. Suicide attempts and suicide in Iran: Results of national hospital surveillance data. Public Health 2012;126(11):990-2.

Weissman MM, Bland RC, Canino GJ, et al. Prevalence of suicide ideation and suicide attempts in nine countries. Psychol Med 1999;29(1):9-17.

De Leo D, Cerin E, Spathonis K, et al. Lifetime risk of suicide ideation and attempts in an Australian community: prevalence, suicidal process, and help-seeking behaviour. J Affect Disord 2005;86(2):215-24.

Renberg ES. Self-reported life-weariness, death-wishes, suicidal ideation, suicidal plans and suicide attempts in general population surveys in the north of Sweden 1986 and 1996. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol 2001;36(9):429-36.

Kessler RC, Borges G, Walters EE. Prevalence of and risk factors for lifetime suicide attempts in the National Comorbidity Survey. Arch Gen Psychiatry 1999;56(7):617-26.

Fleischmann A, Bertolote JM, De Leo D, et al. Characteristics of attempted suicides seen in emergencycare settings of general hospitals in eight low-and middleincome countries. Psychol Med 2005;35(10):1467-74.

Pritchard C, Amanullah S. An analysis of suicide and undetermined deaths in 17 predominantly Islamic countries contrasted with the UK. Psychol Med 2007;37(3):421-30.

Files
IssueVol 53, No 5 (2015) QRcode
SectionArticles
Keywords
Suicidal behaviors Prevalence Systematic review Eastern mediterranean region

Rights and permissions
Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
How to Cite
1.
Malakouti SK, Davoudi F, Khalid S, Ahmadzad Asl M, Moosa Khan M, Alirezaei N, Mirabzadeh A, DeLeo D. The Epidemiology of Suicide Behaviors among the Countries of the Eastern Mediterranean Region of WHO: a Systematic Review. Acta Med Iran. 1;53(5):257-265.