Individual factors associated with suicidal recurrence in patients of southern tunisia

INTRODUCTION: Nowadays, suicide is a global public health problem thus detection of risk factors more specifically individual factors can be used as a method for prevention and intervention. OBJECTIVES: The aims of our study were to assess the incidence of suicidal recurrence and its individual associated factors. METHODS: A retrospective descriptive and analytical study was undertaken including all patients consulting for the first time at Gabes psychiatry department (in southern Tunisia) from the 4(th) March 2009 to the 25(th) September 2020 for suicidal attempt. Sociodemographic and clinical data as well as suicidal attempts’ characteristics were assessed. The statistical analysis was executed on the software SPSS (20(th) edition). RESULTS: 278 patients were collected including 217 female. The mean age was 26. Suicidal patients were unmarried (75.9%), childless (79.1%) and unemployed (47.5%). The common suicidal attempt method was voluntary drug intoxication (67.8%). Interference of individual factors was reported in 77% of cases, especially difficulties to cope with stress (46.4%), followed by low self-esteem (36.5%), personal psychiatric history (17.3%), personal medical history (8.3%) and alcohol or drug abuse (6.1%). A suicidal re-attempt was notedin 24.9 % of cases. Recurrence was associated with the female gender (72.4%), difficulties to cope with stress (<10(-3)) and low self-esteem (p=0.012). CONCLUSIONS: After the first suicidal attempt, it’s crucial to identify the individual factors that seems to have an influence on subsequent suicidal behaviour in order to ensure a proper treatment.