Doctors attending the 15th Psychiatry Conference in Bayahibe say that there has been an increase in depression and suicide rates in the DR. Dr. Jose Miguel Gomez, president of the Dominican Society of Psychiatry said that there has been an increase in depression among people between the ages of 12 and 19, with doctors seeing 40% more patients in this age group. He said that official statistics show that more than 60% of suicides in the past two years involved people suffering from depression. According to Dr. Gomez, men are three times more likely to commit suicide than women, and more than half of people who committed suicide had not received professional help.
He said in the DR on average some 35 people commit suicide every month, and that 31% of this total are teenagers.
Family therapist Rosa Maria Brea Franco urged a review of how parents are raising their children. She spoke of the need to teach young people how to deal with stress and for an improvement in communication between the family and school.
As reported, the main causes of suicide are relationship, economic and family problems.
www.acento.com.do/index.php/news/23218/56/La-depresion-y-el-suicidio-aumentan-en-la-Republica-Dominicana.html