Suicide in Iran is believed to be a growing concern in recent years within the nation. According to statistics most of the people who commit suicide are between the ages of 15 and 35.
Economic problems, ongoing conflicts, mental illnesses, environmental changes, social media, natural disasters, health crisises, cultural obligations, police brutality, conspiracy theories, terrorist attacks, negative news, sexual misconduct, political issues, and social pressures are the major factors for those who commit suicide in Iran. Iranian Legal Medicine Organization statistics are classified to avoid a negative sentiment.
Statistics Suicide in Iran is believed to be a growing concern over recent years. According to World Health Organization in 2014 the suicide rate of Iran was 5.3 in every 100,000 people. In that year, the rate of suicide based on gender was 3.6 for women and 7 for men. Seasonally, most suicides occurred in summer with the rate of 35.2% of all suicides; 13% higher than any other season. Based on a meta-analytical research, in Iran, the rate of non-fatal and fatal suicide attempts among married couples is higher than other groups. The statistics provided by the Medical Jurisprudence Organization of Iran show that 54% of suicides ending in death occurred among people under 30 years of age and that people who lived in the cities had statistically higher rates of suicides than people living in rural areas.
Reasons +Table 1: Reasons of suicide among 7,553 subjects referred to Loghman Hospital in Tehran from 1970 to 1972. style="border: none;" Love-related issues Family-related issues Society-related issues Finance-related issues 10–14 67 86 4 1 15–19 632 1٬268 134 108 20–24 669 1٬121 272 155 25–34 377 944 139 75 35–44 269 423 116 67 45–54 36 161 44 10 55–64 24 78 11 5 65 and older 9 87 26 6 N/A 35 61 17 15 Total 2,118 4,229 763 443 According to the field research questionnaires given to the suicidal patients referred to Loghman Hospital from 1970 to 1972, family-related issues, with a prevalence of 56%, were the most important reasons of committing suicide. (Table 1). In this study, family-related issues consisted of conflicts between married couples and their parents, and also improper interpersonal relations between parents and their children or other siblings with each other. Such issues started from the ages of 15 to 19 and were most frequent among 20- to 24-year-olds. These two age periods combined were the cause of 56% of total suicides related to family issues. In general, 81% of suicides related to family issues were committed by youths from 10 to 34 years old. In addition, family-related issues, were the most prevalent reason among children from 10 to 14 years old (33%).
In the aforementioned study (Table 1), love-related issues with a prevalence of 28% were the second most frequent reason of suicide and the most frequent age period was from 15 to 24 (61٪). In this study, housing, unemployment, and educational failure, have been categorized under society-related issues which was the third reason of suicide with the highest frequency in patients from the age of 20 to 24 years old. In this study, financial issues were the lowest cause of suicide with 6% of all committed suicides.
In a study done on 260 suicides referred to the Medical Jurisprudence Organization of Iran in the first half of 2004, according to the answers that the families of these suicide victims provided, the most prevalent reasons for suicide among men were mental disorders (41%) and financial problems (31%);These percentages are related to 61% of cases in which the reasons for suicide were determined. In 39% of the cases, the families of the suicide victims either didn't know or didn't want to release information. and among women were family conflicts (54%) and mental disorders (31%).These percentages are related to 66% of cases in which the reasons for suicide were determined. In 34% of the cases, the families of the suicide victims either didn't know or didn't want to release information. The most prevalent mental disorder among both men and women was depression and in 27% of the cases, the victim had a long history of hospitalization.
Demographics +Table 2: Age and gender of subjects who committed suicide by poisoning and referred to Loghman Hospital in Tehran from 1970 to 1972. colspan="1" rowspan="2" style="border: none;" 1970 1971 1972 Total Men Women Total Men Women Total Men Women Total 10–14 29 76 105 30 50 80 11 61 72 257 15–19 363 824 1٬187 243 283 526 237 462 699 2,412 20–24 423 512 935 223 350 573 372 416 788 2,296 25–34 338 462 800 260 305 565 251 423 674 2,039 35–44 136 232 368 120 150 270 125 371 496 1,134 45–54 36 55 91 56 83 139 47 35 82 312 55–64 22 31 53 34 44 78 18 7 25 156 65 and older 40 22 62 20 38 58 5 3 8 128 N/A 48 22 70 30 45 75 23 26 49 194 Total 1,435 2,236 3,671 1,016 1,348 2,364 1,089 1,804 2,893 8,928
Gender
Women Iranian women are more vulnerable to suicide than other groups in the society. In 2007, Iran ranked the third country in which women were outnumbering men in committing suicide.
According to a study published in 2008, women's suicide rate in Iran was double that of men. This study also found that drug overdose is the most popular method of suicide among Iranians; hanging and self-immolation, respectively, are the most popular methods after drug overdose.
Men
Age
Children and teenagers Based on Iranian statistics, from 1984 to 1993, nearly 1,500 deaths attributed to suicide of 27,000 deaths among children and teenagers were recorded annually. Teens from 13 to 17 years of age committed most of these suicides and the suicide rate among boys was four times that of girls. The total number of suicides from 1994 to 2001, were 4,250 which showed a large increase from the last mentioned period of time. Jalili, by excluding the exceptional cases,One of these exceptional cases was the mass suicide of a group of students in Sistan and Baluchestan Province, which happened after their beloved teacher committed suicide. found the total number of teen suicides from 1993 to 2001 to be approximately 3,225 cases; the suicide rate based on gender was 3.7 boys to 1 girl. The most chosen methods of suicide were, respectively, drug poisoning, hanging, jumping from a height, and, very rarely, firearms. Boys chose firearms, explosives, hanging, and suffocation, whereas girls mostly chose poisoning or drug overdose as a method to kill themselves. The most chosen methods of suicides among children were jumping from a height, poisoning, hanging, stabbing, and jumping under vehicles.
In September 2015, Fateme Daneshvar, the director of the social committee of the Islamic City Council of Tehran, declared that from 2002 to 2004, 6 children committed suicide in Tehran. This data is from the Loghman Hospital in Tehran and is for suicides by poisoning for ages 8 to 13. Sociologist Majid Mohammadi considers the following five reasons for Iranian child and teen suicide: 1- conflicts in sexual identity which increases suicide rates among LGBT youths; 2- neglected depression; 3- group pressure and being bullied at school; 4- copycatting the suicide of another person and public hanging of criminals; and 5- Forced marriage in some provinces.
In a field study done on 323 students (159 boys and 164 girls) between the ages of 14 and 17 in the city of Isfahan, which was published in 2001, the prevalence of major depressive disorder among teenagers was nearly 43.4% and suicidal ideation 32.7%.In this study, 15.2% were aged 14, 34.4% were 15, 28.5% were 16, and 22% were 17. The average age was 15.57. It was revealed that 55.5% of girls and 30.8% of boys had been suffering from mild or severe depression. This study also showed that the highest frequency of suicide ideation (58.3%) was among teenagers who described their parents' behavior to be restrictive (less emotional and more controlling), while the lowest frequency of suicide ideation (11.6%) was among teenagers who described the behavior of their parents to be democratic (more emotional and less controlling). The prevalence of suicide ideation among girls was more than boys (37.7% vs 27.5%, respectively).
Youths According to suicide statistics of 2013, which were the most recent until July 2015, 54% of all suicides in Iran were committed by people aged under 30.
A longitudinal study done on students from 2003 to 2008, showed that hanging was the most chosen method and wrist cutting was the least chosen method of suicide. According to this study, single male students aged 22 who were studying Humanities in the Islamic Azad University, had a higher incidence of suicide than any other group. It was found that most of these suicides were committed near the time of the exams and in holidays between semesters.
Methods
+Table 3: Statistics of methods of death by suicide in Tehran from 1964 to 1974. (Data from the Medical Jurisprudence Organization of Iran) Year Hanging Shooting Wrist slitting Self-immolation Jumping from a height Poisoning Electric shock Drinking gasoline Total 1974 12 8 1 – 1 – – 1 23 1973 18 3 2 5 – – – – 28 1972 20 8 6 1 – 1 – – 36 1971 22 8 2 3 – 3 – – 38 1970 16 14 – 2 – – – – 32 1969 17 13 5 2 – 3 – – 40 1968 12 10 5 – 3 – 1 – 31 1967 20 9 6 4 1 – 2 – 42 1966 21 12 2 2 3 1 – – 41 1965 19 8 9 – 1 1 – – 38 1964 13 15 1 – 1 – – – 30 Total 190 108 39 19 10 9 3 1 379
Poisoning
A 2006 study conducted by Ghoreyshi and Mousavi Nasab, showed that 55.8% of the population of 3,477 chose drug overdose as the most preferred method with a median of 55.8% of the total population.
In a meta-analysis study on other studies done until April 2012, Bidel and others found out that from all methods of poisoning, drug overdose with 75% and other poisons (including agricultural and domestic pesticides) with 13% had the most prevalence among suicides. According to this study, provinces of Golestan (90%), Markazi (89%), Razavi Khorasan (88%), and Hormozgan (88%) respectively, ranked the highest in suicide with drug overdose, and provinces of Ilam (25%), Bushehr (21%), and East Azerbaijan (20%) respectively, ranked the highest in suicide with other types of poisons. According to Bidel and others, the reason behind Ilam's high instances of suicide with agricultural pesticides is because such substances are easily accessible in this province.
Self-immolation According to a 2001 report by the medical jurisprudence organization of Iran, self-immolation has been the most chosen method of suicide among women with 69.29% prevalence. This report also states that the highest rate of self-immolation as a method of suicide among men was from Yazd Province with 47% prevalence and the highest suicide rate with this method for women was recorded in Bushehr province with 94.4% prevalence.
In a meta-analysis study consisted of 19 studies with a population of 22,498 suicide cases until 2012, Nazarzade and others have concluded that generally speaking, from all physical methods of suicide, self-immolation, with a prevalence of 13%, is the most chosen method of suicide in Iran. They also found that the provinces of Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad (48%), Ilam (28%), and South Khorasan (10%), respectively, ranked the highest rates for self-immolation as a method of killing oneself. According to Nazarzade and others, although suicide by this method in Iran occurs less than in other countries like India (40%), Sri Lanka (24%), and Egypt (17%), the prevalence of this method in Iran is more than some African countries like Zimbabwe (11%) and South Africa and also some European countries like Germany. Their report states that in general and except for poisoning, Iranian men and women tend to use violent methods like self-immolation, hanging, and shooting with firearms for their suicide. The prevalence of these types of methods is higher in western and south-eastern provinces of the country.
Hanging