Mumbai: With two suicide attempts at Mantralaya within a fortnight, city-based psychologists said that there could be a rise in copycat suicide attempts due to grievances. They also said there is a need to psychologically evaluate persons who attempt suicide.
Dr Ali Gabrani, a psychiatrist at Masina hospital said, “The suicide attempts are increasing, and when we go into the details, we will realise that some have valid reasons for frustrations and others have no valid reasons.” He added, “The government has been alert, but at the same time the concerned persons need to be psychology evaluated, which is lacking.” Dr Gabrani, said, “These people want to grab the attention since their suffering has taken a toll on their psyche, but this is extremely dangerous.”
A copycat suicide is defined as an emulation of another suicide that the person attempting suicide knows about either from local knowledge or due to accounts or depictions of the original suicide through different forms of media.
Dr Sagar Mundada, psychiatrist and president Indian Medical Association (IMA) Youth Wing said, “A copycat suicide is repeating the action or following footsteps of the person who has attempted or killed themselves with a certain pattern.”
He said, “The top three reasons for suicide among the men can be unemployment, drug abuse and failure in examination.”
Dr Mundada said, “In such cases psychological counselling is must and system should be there in place for such people to get treatment on urgent basis.”
