Estimation of triggers for self-harm attempts in patients at the Ambato general teaching hospital in 2020

Abstract

Introduction: Suicide is the act of a person's voluntary decision to end his or her life, this action is preceded by suicidal behaviour and autolytic attempt.
Objective: To describe the triggers of self-injury attempts in patients.
Methods: This was a descriptive, observational, cross-sectional, retrospective and descriptive study. The study population consisted of 602 patients.
Results: It was evidenced that the mean age of the population was 34.01 years; female sex predominated by representing 55.3%; the age group that had the highest frequency of occurrence was between 18 and 30 years with 34.9%; that in any of the age groups there is a higher probability of self-harm attempts in the case of the female sex; the most frequent locality from which the people who made self-harm attempts came from, was the urban area of the city of Ambato, with 49.3%; and 94.9% were of Ecuadorian nationality.
Conclusions: The present study described the triggers of self-harm attempts in patients at the Hospital General Docente Ambato in 2020, concluding that the main ones were: mixed anxiety and depression disorders (F412); unspecified anxiety disorders (F419); generalised anxiety disorders (411); and generalised depressive episodes (F329); among others that can probably be generated to the presence of family problems, violence, harassment and other alterations that harm the social and personal wellbeing of the patient.