Depressive symptoms and suicidal risk evaluation in military health staff with a digital instrument

Resumen

Suicide is defined as: “self-inflicted death with implicit or explicit evidence that the person had the intention of self-inflicting death. “There is no single explanation for why people commit suicide?” Surveys were applied to 1517 health care staff of the Military Central Hospital in Mexico City. The people to whom the survey was applied were in the age range of 18 years to 60 or more, both military personnel with different hierarchies participated, as well as civilians, who had different jobs and academic levels.

In the PHQ-2 scale, the obtained results are the following. The 1.8% of the surveyed population had a probable depression and the 98.2% is considered as normal, in the PHQ-9 survey, a final result of 8.1% of the population showed different grades of depression, 105 patients with a mild grade (6.9%), 8 participants in a moderate order (0.5%), as well as with a severely moderate grade and with the major grade, that corresponds to severe, 3 participants (0.2%) of the population, considering that the important groups that should receive medical attention are the ones in the moderate, severely moderate and severe grades. In addition, these personnel also answered the Beck Hopelessness Scale, that measures pessimism, hopelessness and negative attitudes towards life (suicidal ideation), showing as result that, 277 participants (13.3%) with a mild grade, 45 participants (3%) with a moderate grade and 5 (0.3%) in the severe one.

Considering that the personnel whom is considered to have suicidal ideation, is in the moderate category, these persons require specialized medical attention in order to prevent suicide, based on these results we can highlight the mental health evaluation importance of the personnel that conforms the armed institute.