Year: 1996 Source: Psychiatric Services, v.47, no.5, (May 1996), p.517-521 SIEC No: 20020016

Studies of suicide among immigrants from the Indian subcontinent were examined to increase awareness of suicide risk & to better understand social & psychological factors contributing to suicide in this group. Suicide rates of young women immigrants were consistently higher than those of their male counterparts & of the young women in the indigenous populations of the countries to which they immigrate. Use of violent methods was common among both genders. A disproportionately higher number of immigrant Hindus completed suicide. Family conflict appears to be a precipitating factor in many suicides, whereas mental illness is rarely cited as a cause. More research on this population is required. (21 refs.)