Prevalence of suicidal ideation in psychiatric patients

Pages: 733-740
Sandhyarani Moirangthem (Department of Psychology, Sikkim University, Gangtok, Sikkim)

Suicide is increasingly becoming an important phenomenon, drawing emphasis on the rising need to explore it for successful prevention. The aim of the present study is to examine the prevalence of suicidal ideation in psychiatric patients at Regional Institute of Medical Sciences, Imphal. A clinical sample of 150 patients, within age range of 18 to 60 years, diagnosed with psychiatric disorders was drawn as the sample of the study using purposive sampling. Socio-demographic details of the participants were collected using semi-structured performa and Adult Suicidal Ideation Questionnaire (Reynolds, 1991) was used to assess the suicidal ideation in psychiatric patients. Chi-square test was used to analyze the research data. Findings showed that suicidal ideation was prevalent in 14% of the sample, and the most common among them are mood disorder and psychosis NOS followed by dissociative disorder and anxiety disorder. It was also found that there was no significant relationship between duration of illness and suicidal ideation in psychiatric patient; however the history of previous suicide attempt is an important indicator of suicidal ideation.