Objective:

A demographic characterization of patients with suicide attempts in Ibague,2013-2014.

Method:

a transversal descriptive study with secondary information taken from databases: From the national public health surveillance system (Sistema Nacional de Vigilancia en Salud Publica) Sivigila; from the Municipal Health Secretariat and the field visit format. An exploratory survival analysis was carried out in order to determine the differences existing between the last suicide attempt with respect to previous events.

Results:

Information from 357 individuals having tried to commit suicide: 59.7% were women. In 50% of the cases, they were aged 21 years or less, and 30% were recidivists. Vital stressing events found consisted of dysfunctional interpersonal relations with their partners (49.6%) and their parents (34.8%). The time elapsed on average among the people having been admitted to the study with suicide attempts other than the current last one was 15.9 months (IC 95% 14.7 - 17.3). The likelihood of being a recidivist is higher in the first ten months elapsed, i.e. 83%, with a subsequent decline, and finally standing at 9% after some 20 months as a minimum.

Conclusions:

Suicide attempts are mostly taking place among women, young adults and adolescents of less than 19 years of age, and poisoning or intoxication is the preferred method used. The nearest the occurrence of a suicide attempt, the highest the likelihood of its recurrence will be.

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