correlates of process of suicide attempt and perception of its prevention

objective: suicide attempt may follow a process right from the inception of the first information about ‎suicide until the act itself. this study was conducted to determine the relationship between ‎perception of suicide prevention with the process of suicide attempt and demographic ‎variables following a suicidal attempt.‎ method: in this hospital based cross-sectional study, 168 consecutive admitted participants with a ‎suicide attempt were screened, and 109 who met the study criteria were recruited to ‎participate in this study before discharge. they were assessed using the socio-demographic ‎and clinical proforma designed for this study as well as by the pierce suicide intent scale. to ‎assess the process of suicide attempt and perception of suicide prevention, a 17- item ‎questionnaire was developed and used after rigorous literature search. the cronbach’s ‎alpha coefficient value of this questionnaire found to be 0.84 in the reliability analysis.‎ results: media was the first source of information, and the majority had short duration of ‎preoccupation and interval between making the decision and the actual attempt and the ‎control of emotion during the attempt. a significant positive correlation was observed ‎between the source of the first information and age (p<01), reason for the method used and ‎economic status (p<01), duration since the first information and family history of suicide (p<01). psychiatric diagnosis had a statistically significant association with the method used (p<01), duration of preoccupation (p<01), preparedness (p<01) and emotional state during ‎the attempt (p<01). a statistically significant negative correlation was found between the ‎source of the first information and education (p<01), any psychiatric diagnosis and duration ‎since the first death wish (p<01). on the score of perception about suicide prevention, a ‎significant group difference was observed for marital status, occupation, medical diagnosis, ‎opinion about an attempt, duration since the decision to attempt, and emotional control ‎during the attempt.‎ conclusion: based on the findings, it can be concluded that perception of suicide prevention may vary ‎with the process of suicide attempts and demographic characteristics.‎