At the end of September 2017, the Brazilian Health Ministry released its first official figures on suicides and suicide attempts in the country. It shows that psychosocial services play a key role in preventing suicide. The report says that the risk of suicides is up to 14% lower in locations with specialised psychosocial support centres.

The new figures will help shape mental health services in Brazil. Based on the report’s data, the Health Ministry launched a new strategy to meet the World Health Organisation’s target, to reduce deaths by suicide by 10% until 2020. As part of the strategy, they intend to train personal, to educate the population and journalists on that issue, to expand the network of mental health centres in the higher risk areas and to have a yearly update of cases across the country.

Norma Alves de Oliveira (photo), a psychiatrist doctor with a Masters degree in Health Sciences is member of the Scientific Department of the Medical Spiritist Association of the state of Sergipe. She is also author of a book on transpersonal psychoanalysis and past-life therapies. In this interview, she speaks about strategies that can help prevent suicide.

Are there studies showing the possible reasons for suicide?

Yes. The data we have is terrifying, prompting the World Health Organisation to designate suicide as an epidemics. There are one million suicides every year around the world, or one every 40 seconds. The number of attempts is 10 to 20 times higher than the number of obits (one suicide attempt every 3 seconds). Suicide is among the top 10 causes of death in the world and is on the top three for people aged between 15 and 34. It is the third most common cause of death among young people and common also among the elderly. It is becoming more common amongst children. Men take their lives more often than women, by a ratio of between 2 and 4 to one, according to some studies. Data concerning education level is inconclusive.

De que forma os transtornos mentais facilitam ou mesmo estimulam a prática do suicídio?

In which way mental disorders facilitate or even encourage suicide?

That is a very relevant question. A study by the World Health Organisation concluded that 97% of people who had committed suicide suffered from mental disorders such as depression, drug addiction, schizophrenia, behaviour disorder or personality disorder. These disorders create restrictions which, depending on how serious they are, cause depression as well feelings of hopelessness, despair and abandon.

Some disorders take people to suicide because of the impulsivity of their nature, like the borderline personality disorders. Others, such as antisocial disorder, are linked to a lack of emotion in life. Other disorders that follow episodes of crisis leave people with a feeling of anguish or hopelessness. And many factors associated to psychiatric disorders, including chronic organic illnesses, genetic illnesses, family breakup, ageing with lack of social support, extreme poverty or wealth, living in big cities, unemployment, religious extremism etc. can be an important factor in suicide attempts or obits by suicide.

Is there any efficient way of preventing suicide?

There are treatments, but different researchers disagree on their efficacy. Suicide can be avoided in patients with psychiatric disorders who have access to proper diagnosis and treatment and follow the recommended treatment.

Few empirical studies have been carried out to find out whether suicide is a type of behaviour that can be avoided. The conclusions are based on clinical experience of the researchers. Several studies conclude that there are fewer suicides among individuals with psychiatric disorders who are treated then among those who are not treated.

Is there are a spiritual component in every suicide?

We can’t say that there is a spiritual component in every suicide, but we know that in 97% of cases those who commit suicide have mental disorders. And we know that most cases of mental disorder are linked to spiritual disturbances. We can then say there is spiritual influence in most cases of suicide.

However, more research is needed in order to reach a scientific conclusion. Clinical experience shows us that in many cases suicide is linked to spiritual obsession (or attachment), to cases in which mediums do not use their faculties to help others, to existential emptiness and to the lack of any information about life after death.

With prevention work, is it possible to make sure that the patient will not make other suicide attempts?

No, as it depends on a number of issues. There are cases when the patient has a compulsion towards suicide and prevention strategies fail to prevent it. However, the data available shows that there is a sharp reduction in cases when there is proper medical and psychological intervention with good social and family support.

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