Suicide Behaviour in the Caribbean

Abstract

There have been relatively few publications on suicide in the Caribbean. Some of the earliest studies came out of the twin island of Trinidad & Tobago and later on from Guyana and Suriname. It was the ingestion of agro-chemicals by the East Indian population that might have stimulated the interest in those countries. The rate of suicide attempts in the Caribbean has been steadily increasing. Hospital records have confirmed this, but it would appear that in those countries with a high East Indian population that hospitalization has been mainly for ingestion of poisons. In those with a low East Indian population, the Afro-Caribbean has been overdosing with analgesics or benzodiazepines. Those who kill themselves continue to be male in mid-adulthood, but ingestion of agro-chemicals is now far more prevalent than hanging. It is probably because much less preparation is needed for ingestion than for hanging and it is now common knowledge that survival is rare after paraquat ingestion.