A Consultant Neuropsychiatrist, Dr Maymunah Kadiri, on Tuesday identified psycho-social problems and mental health issues as key causative factors of suicide in Nigeria.
Kadiri, also the Medical Director, Pinnacle Medical Services Ltd., spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos.
She said that most people who died by suicide or attempted suicide could do that as a result of a mental health problem or a psycho-social problem.
She listed the mental health and psycho-social problems to include: depression, anxiety, mental disorder, social isolation, stressful life events such as a death or loss of a job and substance abuse.
Others, she said, were family history of mental disorder or suicide, previous suicide attempts, bullying, poverty, frustration, financial imbalance and hopelessness, which exist at the individual level, among others.
She also listed the signs of depression to include sustained unhappiness, losing interest in those things that earlier interested one, a feeling of consistent worthlessness, and loss of appetite.
The Neuro-psychiatrist added that one of the causes of suicide was the increase in urban migration, which, according to her, can cause an increase in psycho-social problems.
“Recently, I got the information of a man who jumped into the lagoon; two weeks ago, I got the information of a 14-year-old boy who drank sniper to kill himself, but was rescued. Suicide cases are worrisome.
“Sometimes, when you ask the rescued victim if he wants to die, the answer will be ‘no’. This implies that there are some psycho-social problems that lured the person into the action.
“So, it may be that the person is depressed or having underlying mental health issues, lost a loved one, tired of life due to challenges, financially or emotionally troubled,” she said.
Contributing, a mental health advocate, Dr Babatunde Ojewola, stated that there was no amount of life challenges that justified any human to attempt or die by suicide.
According to him, suicide should not be an option to end one’s life in the face of any kind of life challenge, because challenge is what makes up life.
Ojewola advised that people should learn to take life easy and develop positive coping mechanisms rather than considering negative thoughts of suicide when faced with challenges.
He explained that suicide could be 100 per cent preventable since it was not a diagnosable disease.
He said there were a number of measures that could be taken to prevent suicide, which included government interventions, reducing access to the means of suicide like pesticides, firearms and certain medications.
He added that early identification, followed by proper treatment and care of people with mental and substance use disorders, was another effective measure.
“The Federal and state governments should endeavour to have a programme that will allow people to talk about their health problems and other challenges of life that are confronting them daily, which can serve as an impetus to committing suicide.
“This will provide a means of helping those who might want to attempt suicide, but the best approach to combat suicide is to provide psychiatric help,” he said.
NAN
