Attempted suicide by self poisoning is common because of the ready availability of drugs, whether prescribed or bought over the counter. In some cases, the ingestion of seemingly innocuous household products or chemicals can result in death. Potassium permanganate is an example. Poisoning with potassium permanganate can be fatal when a significant amount is ingested, as shown by a patient who s...

We report a fatal case of suicide presenting with convulsions and subsequently multi-organ failure. Rodenticide poisoning was not suspected until the next day when tetramine was detected in the patient's blood, urine, and food residues. Tetramine is a potent rodenticide with a rapid action and high mortality. The poison has been banned worldwide but is still readily available in Mainland China....

Increasing use of the nail gun has led to higher injury rates from the use of tools with sequential actuation. Nail gun injury can occur to various parts of the body. Very deep penetration in the brain can have fatal results. A 46-year-old male fired shots from a nail gun into his brain in a suicide attempt. This case demonstrated successful surgical management of the resultant open head injury.

BACKGROUND Suicide prevention is given a low priority in many Western Pacific countries due to competing health problems, stigma and poor understanding of its incidence and aetiology. Little is known about the epidemiology of suicide and suicidal behaviour in the Philippines and although its incidence is reported to be low, there is likely to be under-reporting because of its non-acceptance by ...

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is an important cause of women's health and socio-familial severe problems, the most extreme being the victims' homicide. This is the first nationwide Portuguese autopsy-based and judicial-proven study about female intimate partner homicide. At least 62 women over 15 years old were killed by current or former men-intimate partners, corresponding to an IPV-related...

BACKGROUND Annual patterns in suicide rates, peaking near the summer solstice, are well documented. It has been suggested that day length or total hours of sunshine has an impact on suicide rates. If these environmental factors are involved, we would expect changes in the daily pattern of suicide rates to occur over the year. To test this hypothesis, the 24-h patterns of suicide rate were inves...

Declaration of interest None. Salib & Tadros (2000) recently suggested that brain weight in people over 60 years of age who commit fatal self-harm is significantly higher than in those who die of natural causes. This was true for all suicide methods but there was no difference between suicide modes. Brain weight, structure and volume have been examined in several conditions. Courchesne et al (1...

BACKGROUND Repeat self-harm is an important risk factor for suicide. Few studies have explored risk factors for non-fatal repeat self-harm in Asia. AIMS To investigate the risk of non-fatal repeat self-harm in a large cohort of patients presenting to hospital in Taipei City, Taiwan. METHOD Prospective cohort study of 7601 patients with self-harm presenting to emergency departments (January ...

As asphyxial episodes during autoerotic activity are rarely reported in women, a review of eight fatal cases and one near-fatal case was conducted to delineate more clearly the characteristics of this syndrome in women. Six cases involved characteristic fatal autoerotic asphyxial activity. The remaining two fatal cases were atypical in that the apparatus that was used for sexual purposes was no...

www.thelancet.com Published online August 11, 2017 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(17)32207-9 1 With a view to reducing pesticide self-poisoning in Sri Lanka, Melissa Pearson and colleagues did one of the largest community-based cluster-randomised controlled trials of the effectiveness of household lockable pesticide storage, reported in The Lancet. The effort is admirable, but unfortunate...