Between one and two suicides reported daily in Malaysia

Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said according to the report, 1,100 suicides were reported during the three-year period, with the ratio of two men to a woman.

"This is only based on post-mortem cases and the actual statistics are likely to be higher," he said in his opening speech at the seminar on 'Sayangi Nyawa, Hidupkan Harapan' in conjunction with the 2015 suicide prevention month, here Thursday.

The objective of the seminar is to increase the knowledge of participants comprising medical practitioners and psychologists regarding the handling of suicidal behavior, epidemiology and the leading causes of suicide in Malaysia.

Dr Noor Hisham said, statistics for a period of five years (2010-2014) from the Health Informatics Centre, Health Ministry, showed that a total of 338 deaths in the ministry's hospitals were caused by intentional self-harm.

"The most common ways of committing suicide are hanging, jumping from high-rise buildings and drinking herbicides or pesticides. However, poisoning by carbon monoxide is increasingly becoming popular," he said.

Suicide-related behavior can occur due to various factors such as complex mental disorders, especially depression, drug and substance abuse, tragedies such as financial problems, losing a job, relationship conflicts (separation, divorce), poverty, physical illness and a history of suicide in the family.

Dr Noor Hisham said suicidal behavior covers a spectrum of suicidal ideas, suicide plans, suicide attempts and the act of committing suicide.

He added that the 2011 National Health and Morbidity Survey showed the prevalence of suicidal ideas among adults in Malaysia as being 1.7 percent, prevalence of suicide plans was 0.9 percent, and suicide attempts was 0.5 percent.