JEDDAH, 10 October 2003 — Some 400 people killed themselves in the Kingdom last year, according to Dr. Mohammad Al-Shawoosh, the director of the Jeddah Psychiatric Hospital.
Speaking to journalists before the International Day of Mental Health on Saturday, Dr. Al-Shawoosh said women were more prone to commit suicide than men for reasons including developments in adolescence.
“Suicide attempts are more common among women than men and more common among teenagers and young adults than adults. But adults are more likely to succeed in killing themselves,” Dr. Al-Shawoosh told Arab News. “In Saudi Arabia we had 400 suicides last year but the number of attempts is far higher.”
Studies showed that worldwide one person committed suicide every three seconds, amounting to four million cases a year.
Dr. Al-Shawoosh also said hospitals in the Kingdom admitted some 450,000 people with a range of psychological disorders. Of these, 60 percent suffered from anxiety, depression, paranoia and psychosomatic illnesses, as well as hallucinations brought on either by drug use or mental disorders. Cases of mental problems due to drug abuse formed an increasing percentage of mental disorders worldwide, he said.
Dr. Al-Shawoosh said Jeddah alone saw some 45,000 cases a year, not including patients in rehabilitation centers in jails, public health centers and orphanages.
The Kingdom has 14 mental hospitals and three centers for the treatment of addiction, with 42 departments for mental health in the public health sector.
The director added plans were under way to expand these facilities to cope with the increasing number of mentally ill patients. He said some 30 percent of the world population suffered from psychological problems at one time or another.
