Abstract
The clinical features of 11 suicidal attempt cases (male: 2, female: 9) were analyzed. These subjects were admitted to the Iwaki Kyoritsu General Hospital, and were transferred from the Tertiary Emergency Center to the Department of Psychiatry during a 3-month period following the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11, 2011. The number of female cases comprised 4.5 times that of male cases, and half of all cases (6 cases) were in their 20’s. The most preferable method(s) for neurotic young females were overdose of drugs and/or self-mutilation including wrist-cutting (4 cases). Females older than 40 years of age preferred hanging or self-poisoning and were often successful (3 cases). Back-grounded psychosocial factors of suicidal attempts varied according to cases, for example, excessive fatigue and manifestation of familial problems (4 cases), intersexual problems (3 cases), drinking (3 cases), anxiety over the future of agriculture, injury by nuclear crisis and radiation levels (3 cases), prolonged insomnia and depression (3 cases), or recurrence or incidence of post-traumatic stress syndrome or anxiety disorders (3 cases). Among all patients of suicidal attempts in the Emergency Center during the same 3-month period of last year as well as this year, the most frequent cases were females affected by acute poisoning of therapeutic agents. The number of completed suicide cases in the Emergency Center during the same period of both these 2-year periods included only 1 male, whereas among females, the number increased from 0 to 4.
