Karachi:Aga Khan University (AKU) and the Suicide Prevention and Research Interest Group (SPRing-AKU) in collaboration with Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg hosted Pakistan’s first national seminar on suicide prevention on September 30.

The host of the seminar, Dr Junaid Patel, Assistant Professor at the Department of Medicine kept the atmosphere light with his witty one-liners and made the audience comfortable in asking questions related to this tabooed issue.

A host of doctors and psychiatrists addressed the event. Professor and Chairman of the Psychiatry department, Dr Murad M Khan, said that about a million people commit suicide worldwide while another 10 to 20 million attempt it. “In Pakistan, we used to have a low suicide rate but since the mid ’90s it has now increased up to 6,000 to 8,000 suicides a year,” he said.

Stressing the need to understand the cultural meaning of suicide, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Dr Haider Naqvi, highlighted the myths attached to it, for instance, that suicide is an unpardonable sin. “Such myths ostracise the family and create hurdles for patients seeking proper health care. Persecution of a person on the basis of an attempted suicide is nowhere in jurisprudence as well as in Quran. It is high time that we stopped treating suicide as a crime and rather encouraged patients and doctors alike to speak about it openly as this can be a great confidence booster for the patient,” Naqvi said.

Meanwhile, Assistant Professor Dr Ehsanullah Syed pointed out that suicide is one of the three leading causes of death among young people, adding that factors such as parental separation, divorce, family discord, and child abuse force youngsters to drink and use drugs in order to vent off their anger and depression.

“There’s a great need to introduce life skill programs in educational institutions that can teach young people about stress management and healthy living,” he said.

Assistant Professor Dr Nargis Asad quoted a study conducted by One World South Asia in June’08 which said that due to inflation and rising food prices 300 women committed suicide last year. She said that women have to play multiple roles in their families and failing to do so, puts them in a stressful situation.

Research in Pakistan has shown that suicidal behaviour is higher amongst young married women than in single ones. “Early marriages, dependency on their spouses, little freedom on choosing their partners and to top it all being pressurized constantly to have children early in the marriage create a great deal of psychological distress for a woman,” she said.

After Dr Nargis left the podium, Dr Junaid commented that after almost a hundred years of marriage, his wife has stopped feeling suicidal and wants to kill him for a change to end her misery, which was a positive sign!

Leading human rights campaigner Advocate Zia Awan also spoke on the occasion and called for micro level efforts for better management of suicide patients by establishing suicide prevention centres and telephone hotlines. He also urged the government, NGO’s and mental health professionals to work together to reduce suicides in Pakistan.

All the speakers agreed unanimously about the need to sensitise health practitioners and breaking down the mental blocks which creates hurdles in their interaction with the patients.