European Journal of Molecular & Clinical Medicine

Abstract

Suicide is emerging as a public health problem. Almost 800,000 people die because of suicide every year, which accounts for one person every 40 s. The suicidal ideation is increasing amongst the younger age group, particularly amongst students. However, not much is known about this problem amongst medical students in India. A study was conducted in Karwar Institute of Medical Sciences, after obtaining the permission from the Institutional Ethical Committee of the Karwar Institute of Medical Sciences, Karwar. It was a cross-sectional type of study assessing suicidal ideation in medical undergraduate students. A written consent was obtained from the students by the means of Informed Consent Form provided to them before the study. In our study, majority of the students (30%) were 21 years old. 45% of total students were male students and the rest female. Majority (84%) were Hindu and most of the students (90%) belonged to South India. 5% of students have family history of psychiatric/medical illness and 15% of total students have personal history of psychiatric/medical illness out of which anxiety (6%) was the most common illness. 15% of students reported a history of past attempts/ideation