Mental Illness and Suicide in India:A Review

Suicide is one of the growing and problematic mental health issues. It is a result of a completely multi factorial phenomenon, such as clinical, social, and economic, etc... Mental sickness stands an undeniable vulnerability factor for suicide worldwide as well as in Asia. India is one of the major contributors to mortality due to suicide in world. This study intended to review suicide and one of its major risk factor mental illness, it demonstrate the epidemiology, trend and scenario of suicide in India, the literature databases used for this study including some data sets as, suicides due to mental illness in India reported by government of India from 1967 to 2014 and second from same resource but from 1995 to 2014. The third data set is including other research studies pertaining to Suicide and Mental Illness in India, which were surveyed through electronic sources: PubMed, National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), Accidental Death and Suicide in India (ADSI), NAMI, World Health Organization (WHO), EBSCO, J-store, and NCBI, US National Library of Medicine were searched. Suicide in India has an increasing trend, particularly among women, young, married and uneducated people. Mental illness plays a crucial role in resulting suicide, which could be a result of psycho-social phenomenon, for instance low socioeconomic, gender dominance and challenging priorities factors. The findings of this review stress the necessitate for further studies to identify population at high risk for suicide and mental illness as the first step towards development and to reduce the suicide rate and promote well being. Clearly need to take the contextual issues of socioeconomic, psychological, and facilities into account for developing country. These evidences could be valuable for future research, policy making, and treatment determinations targeted at understanding and preventing suicide.