Situación de la conducta suicida en estudiantes de colegios y universidades de San Juan de Pasto, Colombia.

Suicidal behavior, in its different manifestations, represents an international public health problem, being one of the ten main causes of general mortality and one of the three top main causes of death in adolescence and young adulthood. The statistics of suicidal attempts are also very worrying, even more if it is considered that for each case of suicide attempt attended in a health-care center, it is estimated that there are four non-reported and non-attended cases. Several studies report the importance of considering the role of some risk factors such as a family loss, a family history of suicidal behaviors, severe mental health problems in the family, economic problems, personality disorders, non-stable mood state, aggressiveness, impulsiveness and social alienation. When those problems are combined with alcohol or drug abuse, the suicide risk is higher. The presence of suicidal behaviors in Latin-Americans high school and university students has been reported by different papers in which the suicidal ideation indicators range from 8% to 25% and the suicide attempts vary from 8% to 12%. In these papers the difference between women and men is highlighted, given that the first group has a higher propensity of suicidal attempts and men group is in full risk of committed suicide. There are no statistics that confirm the differences between high school and university students. Some studies have confirmed the importance of stressful life events in the suicide phenomenon during adolescents, especially of interpersonal and emotional stressors. Few studies have inquired about the characteristics of suicidal behaviors in student population in Colombia. For this reason, health promotion and suicide prevention actions have not reached the expected effects. The purpose of this study is to know the prevalence and the characteristics of suicidal behavior in high school and college students in the city of San Juan de Pasto. A descriptive study was developed with 463 students belonging to six high schools and two universities, which ensures equal proportions regarding level (high school or university), gender and type of education (public or private). Their ages range from 9 to 30 years old. The Parasuicide Indicators Schedule (CIP- Cédula de Indicadores Parasuicidas) was applied; it was part of a battery of tests of the «Adaptation and validation of psychological instruments in students of San Juan de Pasto» project, which was approved by the ethical committee of the University of Nariño. The stressful life events questionnaire for adolescents (Cuestionario de Eventos Estresantes Vitales para Adolescentes -EEVA-Udenar) was applied to a randomly selected sub-sample. The prevalence of suicidal behavior was of 30%, 18% of the sample analyzed had suicidal thoughts, 4% had suicidal plans and 8% reported previous suicide attempts. The suicidal behavior was more frequent in women than in men and it is unsettling that the proportion of suicide attempts between women and men is 3:1. Suicide behaviors were more frequent in students whose ages ranged from 17 to 20 years old..… [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]