Hanging deaths in Dammam, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

A retrospective study was carried out on 133 suicidal hanging cases autopsied at Forensic Medicine Center in Dammam, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (from 2003 to 2007). Of these cases, 115 (86.46%) were males and 18 females (13.54%), with an average male:female ratio of 6.38. There was an increasing trend of hanging among ages between 21 and 50 years (88.7%), and the fourth decade had the highest number of victims (about 36%) between all age groups. Local Saudi nationals comprised a small proportion of cases (21 persons, 15.8%), while the others were foreigners working in the Kingdom with an Indian precedence (63 persons, 47.4%), followed by other 11 different nationalities representing 36.8% of the cases. The peak of these suicidal acts was in June and the least was in February and December. Postmortem blood alcohol was found in 6.76% of cases, amphetamine in 3% (4 cases), and cannabinoids in 2.25% (3 cases). About 75% of the deceased persons were male laborers (100 cases), 11.27% were female housemaids (15 cases), and only 13 persons were unemployed (9.77%). Previous history of psychological illnesses was documented in 19 cases (14.28%) and stressful family problems in 6% of cases. There were previous suicidal attempts in only one case. Suicidal note was found in only seven cases. In conclusion, there was a decreasing trend of suicide by hanging in Dammam from 39 cases in 2003 to 17 cases in 2007, with a rate of 0.85/100,000 population in the last year. This was inconsistent with the overall increase in suicide rate in Dammam when compared to the previous decade. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd and Faculty of Forensic and Legal Medicine. All rights reserved.