Analysis of Self-Injury Behaviours in the Unit of Suicidal Behaviour of Hospital de Braga Análise dos Comportamentos Autolesivos na Unidade de Comportamentos Suicidários do Hospital de Braga

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Suicide is one of 10 leading causes of death worldwide. In the present work, we intend to study the reality of the medical consultation in Unit of Suicidal Behaviour of Hospital de Braga, through carrying out a descriptive, analytical and statistical analysis.
MATERIAL AND METHODS: A descriptive, retrospective and analytical analysis of a database referent to patients of the Unit of Suicidal Behaviour of Hospital Braga, between 2012 and 2016, including. This analysis encompasses the study of the consultation’s movement and the clinical-psychiatric parameters of each patient, as well as the distribution of social behaviours regarding month, gender, age group, professional status, marital status and used suicide methods.
RESULTS: The most frequent diagnosis was depressive disorder in 51.3% of the sample. Violent methods were found to have an association of statistical significance with male gender, substance abuse and repetitive behaviour. Consecutively, repetitive behaviour disclosed to having an association of statistical significance with psychiatric accompaniment, personality disorder and use of psychotropic drugs.
DISCUSSION/CONCLUSION: The association between violent methods and male gender is reported in several similar contextualized studies. The association found between repetitive behaviour and personality disorder is in agreement with previous investigations, where it was identified a high correlation of personality disorders among recurrent para-suicides. Furthermore, the high incidence of suicide related to depressive disorders established in the literature is in accordance with our results.