Forensic medical analysis of the dynamics of death rates in suicides

BACKGROUND: The increase in the number of completed suicides associated with multiple risk factors is a worldwide concern. The rates of completed suicide in both sexes, according to different researchers, differ significantly.

AIMS: To investigate the sex characteristics of death rates of completed suicide.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: Mortality rates using information from official reports on the activities of forensic medical institutions from 1992 to 2019 were analyzed retrospectively.

RESULTS: The results of the analysis of suicide mortality rates indicate that suicides have natural features of development, i.e., a cyclical change in the states of indicators, namely, rise, decline, wave-like flow, characterized by certain periodicity, and constancy (stability of the occurrence of the phenomenon on a national scale). During the study period, completed suicides accounted for 14.0% of the total number of examinations of corpses and 21.4% of all cases of violent death. An analysis of the absolute number of suicide-related deaths by sex revealed a clear predominance of suicides in men (n = 33,888) compared with women (n = 16,036), which counted for 67.9% and 32.1%, respectively. The ratio of the absolute number of completed suicide cases in the group of men and women was approximately 2:1. Suicide mortality rates make it possible to conclude about the nature of this phenomenon in the country as permanent and sustainable.

CONCLUSION: The results of the study of completed suicides in Uzbekistan for the period 1992–2019 allow us to assert that completed suicides as a phenomenon have their natural features of development, namely, the constancy of changes (stability of the occurrence of the phenomenon) and cyclicity (cyclic change of the states of indicators, i.e., rise, decline, wave-like flow, and certain periodicity).