Profile of Suicide Victims in a Municipality of Paraíba / Brazil

Objective: To outline the profile of deaths of suicide victims necropsied at the Center for Medicine and Forensic Dentistry of the Paraíba State Scientific Police Institute in Guarabira, from 2016 to 2017. Methodology: This is a documentary and descriptive research with a quantitative approach. The sample consisted of 47 reports of deaths from suicide. Results: Results showed that of the 47 suicide deaths, 76.6% were male and 23.4% female. The mean age was 44.34 years with a standard deviation of 19.83 in the total group, and no difference in the age of males and females (p = 0.223). Regarding marital status, 55.3% were single, followed by 29.8% were married, 4.3% were widowed, 6.4% did not have this information and 4.3% were ignored. Regarding the method to carry out the suicide, 68.1% of the victims were hanged, followed by 23.4% were poisoned, 4.3% were by firearm, 2.1% were by hight precipitation and 2.1% self-mutilation. Conclusion: The most frequent victims were male, young and single adults. The labor activity that was most present was agriculture, with hanging being the most used method, followed by poisoning. The months with the most casualties were May, August, and September, with the most prevalent days being Monday and Thursday. It is hoped that the observed characteristics will be able to enable effective in-terventions in order to identify suicide risk groups and establish prevention politics. (AU)