The nature of parasuicide in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

In a two year period, 300 parasuicides were admitted at Muhimbili Hospital. Socio-demographic, clinical characteristics, trigger factors and employed methods were analyzed and discussed with reference to other studies. Parasuicides were found to be young adults of mean age 23.7 years. The ratio of females to males was 2.2. The majority had seven years of education and were unemployed or underemployed. Four-fifths of attempts were triggered by acute social conflicts, psychiatric and physical illnesses in socio-economic deprivations partly aggravated by alcohol intake. Two-thirds of parasuicides ingested overdoses of medicaments of which chloroquine constituted 65% of all drugs. Nearly a third of all the attempters had neuropsychiatric illnesses, while 4.3% had physical disorders. Nearly one-fifth or 18.3% of the parasuicides had a history of mental illness in their families, and 12% had individual or family history of previous suicidal attempts. Forty percent of the attempts were categorized as demonstrative, 31% as genuine, 10.3% were equivocal and 18.3% were not clarified.