Selvmordsforsøg pá Færøerne 1976-1980

The Faroe Islands have long been recognized as a low suicide region. The object of this paper was to investigate whether this applies to attempted suicide too. A retrospective method was employed. All admissions to The General Hospital in the capital with diagnoses which could possibly hide suicidal attempts were investigated and reviewed. The material includes 74 cases which were registered consecutively and represents 56 probands. This is an annual rate of about 50 per 100,000 population and is about seven times higher than the suicide rate and about 1/5 of the Danish rate. It was demonstrated that both sexes attempt suicide equally frequently. The women involved were, however, almost exclusively town dwellers. Persons aged between 20 and 39 years and persons living alone predominated. The distribution of occupations was similar in that the population as a whole and persons attempting suicide were not so greatly socially disabled as their Danish counterparts. About 40% claimed personal relationships as a major factor. Consumption of alcohol prior to the suicidal attempt was recorded in about half of the cases. Overdosage with drugs, mainly benzodiazepines, was the most popular method. About 25% were psychotic. This percentage is somewhat higher than those found by other authors, presumably because some of the slighter cases were not included. Twenty-five per cent were not considered to be psychiatric cases at all. About 1/3 had previously been admitted to a psychiatric ward but only six of the probands had attempted suicide previously. Nine out of the 56 probands made repeated suicidal attempts during the five-year period, These were characterized as neurotics and psychopaths, many of whom had alcohol problems.