Prevalence and profile of suicide attempters with abdominal pain as the reason of attempt: A retrospective study

Background and Aims: Suicide attempt is a complex human behavior with multiple determinants. Literature suggests toward abdominal pain as a risk factor for a suicide attempt, but such patients need to be characterized further. This retrospective study aimed to compare individuals with abdominal pain as the reason of suicide attempt to those reporting other reasons for such attempt. Methods: This retrospective chart review-based case-control study was conducted among individuals registered at the crisis intervention clinic of a Tertiary Care Hospital in South India. Information was extracted from the records using a structured profroma. Characteristics of those with abdominal pain as the reason of suicide attempt were compared with age- and gender-matched controls. Results: Of 427 persons registered in the clinic in the period, abdominal pain was the stated reason for the attempt in 37 (8.7% of the sample). Suicide attempters whose stated reason for attempted suicide as abdominal pain had lower education (P = 0.042), were more likely to suffer from physical illness (P < 0.001), were more likely to have a recent visit to a health care professional (P = 0.047), were less likely to give hint prior to attempt (P = 0.010), and had lesser stressful life events compared to the controls (P = 0.024). Conclusions: There seem to be certain differences between suicide attempters who report abdominal pain versus other causes for a suicide attempt