Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dk4vv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T08:16:18.294Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The growth of suicide ideation, plan and attempt among young adults in the Mexico City metropolitan area

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 August 2016

G. Borges*
Affiliation:
Department of Intervention Models, National Institute of Psychiatry Ramon de la Fuente, Mexico City, Mexico
C. Benjet
Affiliation:
Department of Intervention Models, National Institute of Psychiatry Ramon de la Fuente, Mexico City, Mexico
R. Orozco
Affiliation:
Department of Intervention Models, National Institute of Psychiatry Ramon de la Fuente, Mexico City, Mexico
M-E. Medina-Mora
Affiliation:
Department of Intervention Models, National Institute of Psychiatry Ramon de la Fuente, Mexico City, Mexico
*
*Address for correspondence: G. Borges, National Institute of Psychiatry Ramon de la Fuente, Calzada Mexico Xochimilco 101, Col. San Lorenzo Huipulco, Mexico City, CP14370, Mexico. (Email: Guilherme Borges: [email protected])

Abstract

Aims.

Low and middle income countries share a heavy burden of suicide with about three in every four suicides occurring in these countries. Mexico has witnessed a growing trend in suicide deaths; if this trend is not simply a reflection of better reporting of suicide on death certificates, then this increase should logically be accompanied by an increasing trend in suicide ideation, plan and attempts, but we lack information on the trends for suicide ideation, plan and attempt for this period. We therefore aim to report changes for suicidal behaviour for the period 2001–2013 in the Mexico City Metropolitan Area.

Method.

Using two cross-sectional surveys conducted in Mexico in 2001 and 2013, we report the lifetime and 12-month prevalence of suicide ideation, plan and attempt and changes in treatment for these problems among respondents aged 19–26 living in the Mexico City Metropolitan Area 12 years apart. To estimate the changes in prevalence for each outcome, we used generalised linear models to calculate prevalence ratios (PR; the prevalence rate in the exposed (year 2013) divided by the prevalence rate in the unexposed (year 2001–2002), adjusting for sociodemographic variables.

Results.

While increases in the prevalence are noted everywhere, statistical comparisons only found differences for lifetime ideation (PR = 3.1; 95% CI = 1.7–5.8) and a borderline difference for suicide attempt (PR = 2.2; 95% CI = 1.0–4.9). No attempt within the last 12-months was reported in 2001, but the prevalence in 2013 reached 1.5% (18 cases). While PRs for 12-month prevalence were all above the null, none reached statistically significant differences. During this 12-year period, the distribution of mental disorders and the use of services for mental disorders among suicide ideators, planners and attempters did not change in any noticeable way.

Conclusions.

The limitations of our data are the small number of participants in the 2001 survey, the low follow-up rate for the survey in 2013 and that while representative from one city it does not represent the whole country. These findings suggest that suicide ideation and attempt may have increased during this 12-year period in the Mexico City metropolitan area, but this increase did not lead to more use of mental health care services. This information, coupled with the long-term trend of increasing suicide death rates in the country, draw a worrisome and neglected scenario for our youth in this region. Urgent measures, following the recent WHO guidelines for suicide prevention, must not be postponed.

Type
Original Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Baca-Garcia, E, Perez-Rodriguez, MM, Keyes, K, Oquendo, MA, Hasin, D, Grant, BF, Blanco, C (2010). Suicidal ideation and suicide attempts in the United States: 1991–1992 and 2001–2002. Molecular Psychiatry 15, 250259.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Baca-Garcia, E, Perez-Rodriguez, MM, Keyes, K, Oquendo, MA, Hasin, D, Grant, BF, Blanco, C (2011). Suicidal ideation and suicide attempts among Hispanic subgroups in the United States: 1991–1992 and 2001–2002. Journal of Psychiatric Research 45, 512518.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Benjet, C, Borges, G, Medina-Mora, ME, Zambrano, J, Aguilar-Gaxiola, S (2009). Youth mental health in a populous city of the developing world: results from the Mexican Adolescent Mental Health Survey. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines 50, 386395.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benjet, C, Borges, G, Méndez, E, Albor, Y, Casanova, L, Orozco, R, Curiel, T, Fleiz, C, Medina-Mora, ME (2016). Eight-year incidence of psychiatric disorders and service use from adolescence to early adulthood: longitudinal follow-up of the Mexican Adolescent Mental Health Survey. European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 25, 163173.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bergen, H, Hawton, K, Waters, K, Cooper, J, Kapur, N (2010). Epidemiology and trends in non-fatal self-harm in three centres in England: 2000–2007. British Journal of Psychiatry 197, 493498.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bieler, G, Brown, G, Williams, R, Brogan, D (2010). Estimating model-adjusted risks, risk differences, and risk ratios from complex survey data. American Journal of Epidemiology 171, 618623.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Borges, G, García, JA (2015). Suicidio. In Seminario sobre Salud. Padecimientos relacionados con las conductas de riesgo. Módulo 3 (ed. Medina-Mora, ME, Martínez, A and Soberón, G), pp. 101114. El Colegio de México: México.Google Scholar
Borges, G, Cherpitel, C, Orozco, R, Bond, J, Ye, Y, MacDonald, S, Rehm, J, Poznyak, V (2006). Multicentre study of acute alcohol use and non-fatal injuries: data from the WHO collaborative study on alcohol and injuries. Bulletin of the World Health Organization 84, 453460.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Borges, G, Nock, MK, Medina-Mora, ME, Benjet, C, Lara, C, Chiu, WT, Kessler, RC (2007). The epidemiology of suicide-related outcomes in Mexico. Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior 37, 627640.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Borges, G, Benjet, C, Medina-Mora, ME, Orozco, R, Nock, MK (2008). Suicide ideation, plan and attempt in the Mexican Adolescent Mental Health Survey. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 47, 4152.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Borges, G, Benjet, C, Medina-Mora, ME, Orozco, R, Familiar, I, Nock, MK, Wang, PS (2010 a). Service use among Mexico city adolescents with suicidality. Journal of Affective Disorders 120, 3239.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Borges, G, Orozco, R, Benjet, C, Medina-Mora, ME (2010 b). Suicide and suicidal behaviors in Mexico: retrospective and current status. Salud Publica de Mexico 52, 292304.Google ScholarPubMed
Borges, G, García, JA, Borsani, L (2015). Suicidio. In La Depresión y otros trastornos psiquiátricos (ed. Medina-Mora, ME, Sarti, EJ and Real, T), pp. 313324. Academia Nacional de Medicina: México.Google Scholar
Chávez-Hernández, AM, Macías-García, LF (2016). Understanding suicide in socially vulnerable contexts: psychological autopsy in a small town in Mexico. Suicide and Life Threatening Behavior 46, 312.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coope, C, Gunnell, D, Hollingworth, W, Hawton, K, Kapur, N, Fearn, V, Wells, C, Metcalf, C (2014). Suicide and the 2008 economic recession: who is most at risk? Trends in suicide rates in England and Wales 2001–2011. Social Science and Medicine 117, 7685.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cota, M, Borges, G (2009). Estudios sobre conducta suicida en México: 1998–2008. JOVENes 32, 1245.Google Scholar
Demyttenaere, K, Bruffaerts, R, Posada-Villa, J, Gasquet, I, Kovess, V, Lepine, JP, Angermeyer, MC, Bernert, S, de Girolamo, G, Morosini, P, Polidori, G, Kikkawa, T, Kawakami, N, Ono, Y, Takeshima, T, Uda, H, Karam, EG, Fayyad, JA, Karam, AN, Mneimneh, ZN, Medina-Mora, ME, Borges, G, Lara, C, de Graaf, R, Ormel, J, Gureje, O, Shen, Y, Huang, Y, Zhang, M, Alonso, J, Haro, JM, Vilagut, G, Bromet, EJ, Gluzman, S, Webb, C, Kessler, RC, Merikangas, KR, Anthony, JC, Von Korff, MR, Wang, PS, Alonso, J, Brugha, T, Aguilar-Gaxiola, S, Lee, S, Heeringa, S, Pennell, BE, Zaslavsky, AM, Ustun, TB, Chatterji, S (2004). Prevalence, severity and unmet need for treatment of mental disorders in the World Health Organization World Mental Health Surveys. Journal of the American Medical Association 291, 25812590.Google ScholarPubMed
Feregrino, LFE, Montes, LGA, Cortés, F, Amador, GEL (2003). Análisis de muertes por suicidio en el Estado de Querétaro. Salud Mental 26, 4754.Google Scholar
Fleming, TM, Clark, T, Denny, S, Bullen, P, Crengle, S, Peiris-John, R, Robinson, E, Rossen, FV, Sheridan, J, Lucassen, M (2014). Stability and change in the mental health of New Zealand secondary school students 2007–2012: results from the national adolescent health surveys. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry 48, 472480.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fresán, A, González-Castro, TB, Peralta-Jiménez, Y, Juárez-Rojop, I, Pool-García, S, Velázquez-Sánchez, MP, López-Narváez, L, Tovilla-Zárate, CA (2015). Gender differences in socio-demographic, clinical characteristics and psychiatric diagnosis in/of suicide attempters in a Mexican population. Acta Neuropsychiatrica 27, 182188.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
González-Forteza, C, Villatoro, J, Alcántar, I, Medina-Mora, ME, Fleiz, C, Bermúdez, P, Amador, N (2002). Prevalencia de intento suicida en estudiantes adolescentes de la ciudad de México: 1997 y 2000. Salud Mental 25, 19.Google Scholar
Hernández, AMC, García, LFM, Merino, HP, Ramírez, L (2004). Epidemiología del suicidio en el Estado. Salud Mental 27, 1520.Google Scholar
Jiménez-Tapia, A, González-Forteza, C (2003). Veinticinco años de investigación sobre suicidio y psicosociales del Instituto Nacional de Psiquiatría ‘Ramón de la Fuente’. Salud Mental 26, 3546.Google Scholar
Kessler, RC, Berglund, P, Borges, G, Nock, M, Wang, PS (2005). Trends in suicide ideation, plans, gestures, and attempts in the United States, 1990–1992 to 2001–2003. Journal of the American Medical Association 293, 24872495.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kim, MH, Jung-Choi, K, Jun, HJ, Kawachi, I (2010). Socioeconomic inequalities in suicidal ideation, parasuicides, and completed suicides in South Korea. Social Science and Medicine 70, 12541261.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lozano, R, Gómez-Dantés, H, Garrido-Latorre, F, Jiménez-Corono, A, Campuzano-Rincón, J, Franco-Marina, F, Medina-Mora, M, Borges, G, Naghavi, M, Wang, H, Vos, T, Lopez, A, Murray, C (2013). Burden of disease, injuries, risk factors and challenges for the health system in Mexico. Salud Publica de Mexico 55, 580594.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Medina-Mora, ME, Borges, G, Lara, C, Benjet, C, Blanco, J, Fleiz, C, Villatoro, J, Rojas, E, Zambrano, J (2005). Prevalence, service use, and demographic correlates of 12-month DSM-IV psychiatric disorders in Mexico: results from the Mexican National Comorbidity Survey. Psychological Medicine 35, 17731783.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Medina-Mora, ME, Borges, G, Benjet, C, Lara, C, Berglund, P (2007). Psychiatric disorders in Mexico: lifetime prevalence in a nationally representative sample. British Journal of Psychiatry 190, 521528.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miret, M, Caballero, FF, Huerta-Ramírez, R, Moneta, MV, Olaya, B, Chatterji, S, Haro, JM, Ayuso-Mateos, JL (2014). Factors associated with suicidal ideation and attempts in Spain for different age groups. Prevalence before and after the onset of the economic crisis. Journal of Affective Disorders 163, 19.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nock, MK, Borges, G, Bromet, E, Cha, CB, Kessler, RC, Lee, S (2008). Suicide and suicidal behavior. Epidemiologic Reviews 30, 133154.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nock, M, Borges, G, Ono, Y (2012). Suicide: Global Perspective from the WHO World Mental Health Surveys. Cambridge University Press: New York.Google Scholar
Nock, MK, Green, JG, Hwang, I, McLaughlin, KA, Sampson, NA, Zaslavsky, AM, Kessler, RC (2013). Prevalence, correlates, and treatment of lifetime suicidal behavior among adolescents: results from the National Comorbidity Survey Replication Adolescent Supplement. JAMA Psychiatry 70, 300310.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Perry, I, Corcoran, P, Fitzgerald, A, Keeley, H, Reulbach, U, Arensman, E (2012). The incidence and repetition of hospital-treated deliberate self-harm: findings from the world's first national registry. PLoS Medicine 7, 17.Google ScholarPubMed
Research Triangle Institute (2012). SUDAAN Language Manual, Volumes 1 and 2, Release 11. Research Triangle Institute: Research Triangle Park, NC.Google Scholar
Research Triangle Institute (2013). SUDAAN Statistical Software. Release 11.0.1. Research Triangle Institute: Research Triangle Park, NC.Google Scholar
Rhodes, AE, Bethell, J, Carlisle, C, Rosychuk, RJ, Lu, H, Newton, A (2014 a). Time trends in suicide-related behaviours in girls and boys. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry 59, 152159.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rhodes, AE, Lu, H, Skinner, R (2014 b). Time trends in medically serious suicide-related behaviours in boys and girls. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry 59, 556560.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sánchez-Cervantes, FS, Serrano-González, RE, Márquez-Caraveo, ME (2015). Suicidios en menores de 20 años. México 1998–2011. Salud Mental 38, 379389.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Turner, CF, Ku, L, Rogers, SM, Lindberg, LD, Pleck, JH, Sonenstein, FL (1998). Adolescent sexual behavior, drug use, and violence: increased reporting with computer survey technology. Science 280, 867873.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
World Health Organization (2013). Mental Health Action Plan 2013–2020. World Health Organization: Geneva, Switzerland.Google Scholar
World Health Organization (2014). Preventing Suicide: A Global Imperative. World Health Organization: Geneva, Switzerland.Google Scholar