One suicide every 40 seconds in the world

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It is one of the leading causes of death worldwide. It causes more deaths than malaria, breast cancer or homicides. And yet, suicide remains an unattended and taboo subject.

Every year, some 800,000 people in the world take their lives, a figure that shows a serious global public health problem that needs "urgent measures", as indicated by a report that has just been published by the World Organization of the Health (WHO).

The work, which handles data and estimates for 2016 for 183 countries and does not reflect great progress in recent years, claims that despite the fact that every 40 seconds a person dies from suicide, prevention programs are far from global: Only 38 of these countries - Spain is not one of them - has a specific state plan to reduce the number of suicides.

According to WHO data, the overall suicide rate in 2016 was 10.5 cases per 100,000 inhabitants , although large variations were observed between countries, with a range that reached 48.3 cases in males per 100,000 inhabitants in the Russian Federation or the 34.5 cases, also in men, of Ukraine.

Spain, like other Mediterranean countries, is among the nations with the lowest figures, with about 6 cases on average per 100,000 inhabitants (3.1 in women and 9.3 in men).

More men than women

The report shows that almost 80% of suicides occur in low-income and middle-income countries (those that house the majority of the population), but, nevertheless, the highest suicide rates (with an average of 11.5 cases per 100,000 inhabitants) are registered in the first world .

It is in these more developed countries, in which Spain is included, that there is also a very marked inequality between the genders: there are three times more suicides among men than in women .

"Although it is the leading cause of death in young men under 30, suicide remains a taboo subject," says Andoni Anseán, president of the Spanish Foundation for the Prevention of Suicide.

"In Spain there are about 3,700 suicides a year, which means about 10 suicides a day or, what is the same, one every two and a half hours ," continues Anseán, who emphasizes that these figures are conservative and do not take into account possible hidden suicides under other forms of death, such as drug poisoning, accidental precipitation and even traffic accidents.

"It is a very important public health problem," he laments. "And yet, we still don't have a state prevention plan."

This strategy is not only essential to deal with these deaths that we know occur and can be prevented, Anseán says, but also to anticipate changes in patterns, "such as the slight increase in cases in women we are observing."

"There is still a clear stigma and a lot of obscurantism around an issue that needs to be addressed," says Anseán.

Evidence is included in the WHO report on how certain measures - such as restrictions on access to pesticides - can contribute to the reduction of suicide rates. The case of Sri Lanka, which achieved a 70% reduction in the number of suicides through a series of regulations between 1995 and 2015 is paradigmatic.

The approach to suicide must be carried out from different angles, which include the medical, social or educational approach, Anseán remarks, who recalls that a comprehensive plan is necessary to help people whose goal is not to stop living, but to stop suffering .

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