A growing number of people, mainly young twenty-somethings, enter emergency rooms of hospitals for self-inflicted injuries by suicide or self-harm attempts.
Data from the epidemiological surveillance system of the Costa Rican Department of Social Security show that during the first 20 weeks of 2016, 840 of this cases have been reported.
Six out of ten cases are women and the most affected age group was 20 to 39 years.
According to the epidemiologist in charge of the analysis, Dr. Leandra Abarca, the most frequent self-harm mechanisms are poisoning by legal and illegal drugs (46%), unspecified mechanisms (32%), followed by cuts and stab injuries and poisoning with pesticides.
Psychologist Carlos Garita highlights the fact that people with this disorder are emotional unable to handle life situations on their own and need special help to regain self-control.
The communities with the highest incidence of these cases were Dota, Vásquez de Coronado and Turrubares.