Article Title: Reverse Gender Pattern For Suicide In Asian Population? A Perspective From Uk
Author(s): George Tadros
Institute(s): Old Age Psychiatry, Birmingham, Professor of Mental Health and Ageing, Staffordshire University
Journal: Journal of Pakistan Psychiatric Society, 2008, Vol. 5, No. 1, p. 3-7
Suicide is believed to exist in all cultures and it has been wrapped with mystery since early civilizations. Suicide as a form of human behaviour is probably as ancient as man himself. In the UK, suicide and attempted suicide were decriminalised in 1961. This was followed by a sharp increase in the prevalence of attempted suicide. There has been a genuine desire in the UK to promote suicide prevention by setting specific targets and appointing strategies. Attitudes toward suicide have been affected by waves of condemnation and tolerance throughout the different ages and cultures. It is possible that moral and cultural views on suicide have had an effect on the incidence of suicide and statistics data. Therefore, it is essential to understand the meaning of suicide to people of different backgrounds, cultures, generations and experiences. It is important to study suicide within ethnic groups in the UK to understand the attitude of different cultures to suicide that could support efforts to reduce suicide rates in ethnic minorities. Despite the rapid increase in scientific publication on suicide research, there is paucity in studies addressing the issue of Asian suicide in the UK. Most of those studies were designed to study deliberate self-harm (DSH) and based on hospital samples that are not necessarily representative of suicide in the total population.
