Suicide by Self-Immolation, A Cross Sectional Study in Kermanshah-Iran

Although in international studies, it has been reported to be the sixth most common method ofsuicide, self-immolation is reported to be one of the most common methods of suicide in iran. the aimed of thisstudy was to determine the psychological characteristics of those patients who attempted suicide by settingthemselves on fire in kermanshah.methods: in a cross-sectional study in 2003, 227 in-patients who had attempted self-immolation werescreened out for mental illness. one hundred and ninety seven of them were subsequently assessed psychologicallyby using dsm-iv criteria.results: eighty one and half percent of the patients were female with a mean age of 27.1. the majority of thepatients were married and unemployed. twenty one percent of the patients had a history of chronic physicalillness and 59.9% a history of depression. somatoform disorders were detected in 36.5% of the cases andsubstance misuse in 7.5%. there was a 17.6% past history of deliberate self-harm in the patients and 20% in thefamily members. suicide by self-burning had been precipitated by marital conflicts in 33.9% of the cases and byfamily conflicts in 23.2%. there was a high rate of mortality among the patients (50.2%).conclusion: although most of the risk factors for suicide in our population were similar to what is alreadyknown in the literature, we found that married women in kermanshah province were particularly at higher riskof killing themselves by the method of self immolation.iranian journal of psychiatry and behavioral sciences (ijpbs), volume 1, number 2, autumn and winter 2007 : 11-15 .