Suicido Guanajuato

EPIDEMIOLOGÍA DEL SUICIDIO EN EL ESTADO
DE GUANAJUATO
Ana María Chávez Hernández*, Luis Fernando Macías García**, Haydée Palatto Merino*, Leticia Ramírez***

SUMMARY
From the epidemic perspective, suicide appears as an international
public health problem due to the remarkable increase of its
incidence. According to the World Health Organization (WHO),
in the year 2000, suicide had the greaterpercentage (49%) in the
statistics of “deaths by intentional injuries”; followed by violence
(32%) and war (19%).
This source also notifies that in countries with population over
100 millions, Mexico is the country that shows the higher increase
of “changes in age-standardized groups in specific intervals of
time” (+61, 9% in period 81-83/93-95). Followed in descendent
order by: India (+54%, period80-95), Brazil (+13.2%, period
79-81/93-95), and the Russian Federation (+5.3%, period 8082/96-98). The United States of America (-5.3%, period 80-82/
95-97) and Japan (-14.3%, period 80-82/95-97) have shown
decreasing rates.
The increase in the rates of suicide in Mexico has been registered
by various studies, which also have proved that the States where
those rates were the highest are: Veracruz,Mexico City and, in
third place, Guanajuato.
Some specific sectors of Guanajuato State show an association
of two phenomena: suicide and migration, basically migrants
travelling to the United States of America and Canada, both
countries with a high frequency of suicides. The information on
suicide in Mexico come from sources such as local or international
studies, and also from reports obtainedthrough public institutions,
the Instituto Nacional de Estadística, Geografía e Informática (INEGI),
the Secretaría de Salud (SS) and the Procuraduría General de Justicia
(PGJ). Nevertheless, the data given by these institutions show
discrepancies in statistics, a fact due perhaps to differences in the
classification criteria for deaths, and to registration and filing
mistakes.
The aim of thepresent research was to collect and report
epidemiological data on suicides and the characteristics of the
suicidal events, in the State of Guanajuato, during the period
between 1995 and 2001. To this purpuse the files of the PGJ in
Guanajuato State were analyzed; these files contain detailed
information about suicides and the suicidal act, as well as the
transcription of suicidal notes, in case theybe left. They also

contain declarations and testimonies from people who are close
(relatives, friends, acquaintances) to the suicidal victim.
The data gathered included socio-demographical information,
migrant condition, variables related to the suicidal act, alcohol
and drug use at the moment of the event, and the transcription
of the suicidal note. The declarations and testimonies from thesuicide acquaintances were kept for further studies.
The data-gathering lasted six months and was made by last
semester students of the Faculty of Psychology.
Data were analyzed according to the State distribution of the
PGJ that divides it into 4 zones: Leon, Irapuato, Celaya and San
Miguel de Allende. Frequency analysis were made and for some
variables, chi square statistical tests.
Of the 747 casesof death caused by suicide registered by the
PGJ in Guanajuato, during the 1995 – 2001 period, 733 were
analyzed because the lacking 13 files could not be located. From
the total of cases 80.1% were men and 19.9%, women. The rank
of age goes from 8 to 91 years. The average for men was 30 years
and the mode 20 years; for women the average was 28 years and
the mode 18 years old. This shows thatsuicide was committed at
an earlier age by women than by men.
Only 10% of the whole had no schooling; almost half of the
total had completed elementary studies and 21% had attained
high school level. Besides, 30% of the people who committed
suicide were employees and only 1.6% were professionals.
Regarding the characteristics of the suicidal act, the place more
used to committ it, was the suicide´s...