cognitive impairment, gait speed, elderly, Parkinson´s disease, stroke, dementia.

Abstract

Suicidal attempt constitutes the majority of patients with self-inflicted injuries seen at hospital emergency departments. The economic and social costs are high in terms of utilization of health services and the behaviors impact on the individual and his/her family. Objective: To identify some epidemiological characteristics of suicide attempts at Nampula Central Hospital in Mozambique. Material and Method: Descriptive, cross-sectional study on 93 patients who attempted suicide between May 2014 and December 2016. Sociodemographic variables, suicidal method, reasons for the attempt, previous attempts, persistence of suicidal ideation, psychiatric diagnosis and whether the attempt was impulsive or not were identified, data, quantified through percent figures. Results: Over half of the patients were in the 15-24, not-married, and students with a female/male ratio of 1.3. Interpersonal conflicts were the reason in ¾ parts of the attempts. Suicidal ideation persisted in 35.5 % of the patients. Most of the suicide attempts were impulsive acts, facilitated by the availability and easy access to a rodenticide called ratex, and 14.6 % of the patients had had previous attempts. The most frequent psychiatric diagnoses were personality and depressive disorders. Conclusions: Interpersonal conflicts, availability of a lethal agent, impulsive behaviour and diagnoses of personality disorders and depression were the main descripotive findings of this study in Mozambique.