Pattern of suicide: a review of autopsies conducted at the University Hospital, Kuala Lumpur

Suicide is one of the ten leading causes of death in the world, accounting for more than 400,000 deaths annually. The pattern of suicide and the incidence of suicide vary from country to country. Cultural, religious and social values play some role in suicide. Compared to the West and some of the countries in the Asian region the incidence of suicide is low in Malaysia. A three-year retrospective study of all the autopsies performed at the University Hospital, Kuala Lumpur was analysed and the cases that were definitely determined as suicides were further studied. 48.8% of all suicides were ethnic Indians though Indians formed only 8% of the Malaysian population. 38.1% of suicides were Chinese who formed 26% of the population while only 3.6% were Malays, who formed 59% of the population. The preferred methods of suicide were poisoning and hanging. The majority were in the age group 20-40 yr. The study may have missed some cases that would have been wrongly concluded as accidental deaths and a few others where the police would have released the bodies without postmortem examinations.