| Article Index |
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| Suicide Overview |
| General Information |
| Classification |
| Causes |
| Intervention |
| All Pages |
There are approximately 400 deaths from suicide per year in Ireland at present. Medical research confirms that the vast majority of such deaths occur in people who have depression, or who suffer from other illnesses such as schizophrenia, panic attacks, or alcohol or drug problems.
If these illnesses had been treated, such deaths might well have been prevented in a significant number of cases.
For every death from suicide, it is estimated there are 10-30 times as many attempted suicides or episodes of deliberate self-harm. People commit deliberate self-harm in an attempt to end their lives, but also in an attempt to simply seek oblivion or to be “out of it”.
It must be remembered that those who have attempted suicide are much more at risk than the rest of the population of eventually repeating the act, but dying on the next attempt.
This is particularly the case for males who have attempted suicide and remained alive. It is estimated that 5% of such males will eventually die from suicide, and 2% of women who have survived deliberate self-harm will eventually die from suicide.
