Demographic profile and outcome of near hanging cases presenting in tertiary care hospital in Northern part of India: An observational study

Abstract

Suicide a serious public health issue every society is facing today and is highly preventable with timely and strategic intervention.  Attempted suicide is often underreported in India. The present study aims to provide a complete demographic profile of near hanging  cases which often go underreported from the medico-legal point of view. The present study is an observational study of patients  presenting with near hanging and referred to the department of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology, for medico-legal opinion from  Medicine Department of King George's Medical University, Lucknow. All the cases presenting with near hanging from November  2018 to November 2019 were studied. A total of 140 cases of near hanging were reported, out of 140 cases, 73 (52.14%) were male,  and 67 (47.86%) were female. The most common age group involved was 21-30 years with male (62.96%), majority of the cases  (57.14%) were married, and the common materials used for hanging were dupatta (39.29%). In the majority of cases, reason for  hanging was a family dispute (40%) followed by marital disputes (21.43%). Majority of the patient (93.57%) had attempted hanging  for the first time.84.29% of the patients got discharged, and in only 10% of cases, mortality was reported. Early hospitalization and  rigorous medical intervention showed favorable outcome.