Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2015 Jul;57(Suppl 2):S233-8.
doi: 10.4103/0019-5545.161484.

Suicide in women

Lakshmi Vijayakumar  1
Affiliations
Review

Suicide in women

Lakshmi Vijayakumar. Indian J Psychiatry. 2015 Jul.

Abstract

Suicide is a global public health problem. Asia accounts for 60% of the world's suicides, so at least 60 million people are affected by suicide or attempted suicide in Asia each year. The burden of female suicidal behavior, in terms of total burden of morbidity and mortality combined, is more in women than in men. Women's greater vulnerability to suicidal behavior is likely to be due to gender related vulnerability to psychopathology and to psychosocial stressors. Suicide prevention programmes should incorporate woman specific strategies. More research on suicidal behavior in women particularly in developing countries is needed.

Keywords: Attempted suicide; domestic violence; suicide; women.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest: The author is Founder Trustee of SNEHA, an NGO working in suicide prevention in Chennai. Her work as a trustee is honorary and she does not receive any remuneration from the NGO.

References

    1. Beautrais AL. Suicide in Asia. Crisis. 2006;27:55–7. - PubMed
    1. Bertolote JM, Fleischmann A. A global perspective on the magnitude of suicide mortality. In: Wasserman D, Wasserman C, editors. Oxford Text Book of Suicidology and Suicide Prevention. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press; 2009. pp. 91–8.
    1. Cheng AT, Lee CS. Suicide in Asia and far east. In: Hawton K, Van Heeringen K, editors. The International Handbook of Suicide and Attempted Suicide. Chichestor, UK: John Wiley and Sons; 2000. pp. 121–35.
    1. Ajdacic-Gross V, Weiss MG, Ring M, Hepp U, Bopp M, Gutzwiller F, et al. Methods of suicide: International suicide patterns derived from the WHO mortality database. Bull World Health Organ. 2008;86:726–32. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Canetto SS, Lester D. The epidemiology of women's suicidal behavior. In: Canetto SS, Lester D, editors. Women and Suicidal Behaviour. New York: Springer Publication; 1995. pp. 35–57.10.