Search

Background: Suicide is a global health problem that has prompted the World Health Organization (WHO) to announce Mental Health Action to reduce suicide rates. Suicide attempt is a major risk for subsequent suicide, hence a psychiatric emergency. Objective: To determine the patterns of psychiatric morbidity, methods of suicide employed and predisposing factors for attempted suicide. Materials and methods: A cross-sectional study conducted between August 2019 and July 2021 among 154 adult patients admitted with a current history of attempted suicide. A validated Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview Version 7.0 was employed in screening for mental disorders. Categorical data were reported descriptively as frequencies with corresponding proportions. Pearson chisquare and Fisher’s exact tests were performed using STATA version 14. Results: 109 (70.8%) participants were below 35 years of age while two thirds 107 (69.5%) were male. The most frequently adopted method for attempting suicide was organophosphate ingestion among 110 (71.4%) participants, followed by prescription drug overdose in 14 (9.1%). Prevalent mental disorders were Major depressive disorder (MDD) in 60 (39.0%), alcohol use disorder (AUD) among 50 (32.5%), psychotic and bipolar disorders in 27 (17.5%) and 26 (16.9%) participants respectively. Male participants had a four-fold significantly increased likelihood (AOR = 3.99; 95% CI: 1.59, 11.30; p=0.005) of AUD compared to females. Conclusion: The leading psychiatric morbidities were MDD and AUD. Organophosphate poison ingestion and prescription drug overdose were the most employed patterns of attempted suicide. Young male adults (below 35 years) with AUD were vulnerable to attempting suicide.&nbsp

Background: Little research exists in Sub-Saharan Africa on the rates of mental disorders following terror attacks. Available studies have examined PostTraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) only. This study sought to document the burden of PTSD, Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) and Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) among survivors of the Garissa University College terror attack that occurred in North Eastern Kenya in 2015Methods: This was a retrospective chart review of medical records of students screened for psychopathology following the attack. Screening for the terror attack related PTSD, for MDD and for GAD was done using the PTSD Checklist for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual 5 (PCL-5), the Patient Health Questionnaire -9 (PHQ-9) and the Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7 – item Scale (GAD-7), respectively. Screening was conducted 7 weeks after the attack. Results: A total of 552 subjects were screened of whom 385 (69.7%) were male. Two hundred and fifty eight (46.7% [95% CI: 42.5, 50.9]) participants met criteria for a probable PTSD. Two hundred and five (37.1% [95%CI: 33.1, 41.2]) screened positive for MDD while 231 (41.8% [95%CI: 37.7, 46.0]) had probable GAD. There were high rates of co-occurrence of PTSD, MDD and GAD with 139 (25.1%) participants screening positive for all three disorders.Conclusions: The results of this study show a high mental health impact upon survivors of the attack. These findings have implications for the planning of interventions in the aftermath of terror attacks in Kenya.