frequency of self-immolation in the attempted suicide patients in islam abad gharb(1997-2003)

introduction: self-immolation is highly rare in developed countries (0.06% -1.8% of all suicides), whereas it is more frequent in developing countries (39.8%-40.3% of all suicides). self-immolation consists of 0.4% to 40% of total burn center admissions around the word. without any doubt, self-immolation is one of the health problems in which developing countries(such as iran and of course some parts of this country like kermanshah are more involved in this problem) are involved. this paper aimed to implement prevention programs and strategies for reducing the incidence rate of self–immolation. materials & methods: this paper was a cross- sectional study. the sampling was done as census; between - 21 march 1997- 20 march 2003 all the attempted suicide patients who were admitted to emergency room of islam abad (imam khomeini) hospital were surveyed. the data were gathered, coded, and analyzed by statistical analysis. results: during 6 years, 2280 attempted suicide patients were admitted to emergency room of imam khomeini hospital of islam abad. 216 of them (9.5%) had attempted suicide by self-immolation. 88% of the self-immolation patients were females (with a female ⁄ male ratio of 7.5 ⁄ 1) 72% of the self-immolation patients were in the 11-30 years age group. the median age was 26 years (range: 10 - 50≤ years). 54% of the self-immolation patients were married,60% uneducated, 52%housekeepers and38%were unemployed.   conclusion: this study demonstrated that attempted self-immolation; should be considered as an increasing mental health problem in our society. therefore, it is necessary to implement preventive programs and strategies to reduce the incidence rate of this problem.