Access this article online Website: http://www.ijmsph.com Quick Response Code: DOI: 10.5455/ijmsph.2015.12022015273 International Journal of Medical Science and Public Health | 2015 | Vol 4 | Issue 10 (Online First) 1 International Journal of Medical Science and Public Health Online 2015. © 2015 Paresh Chandegara. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. Research Article Trend of suicidal autopsy cases at Government Medical College & New Civil Hospital, Surat Paresh Chandegara, Ganesh Govekar, Jignesh Patel, Kalpesh Zanzrukiya Department of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology, Government Medical College, Surat, Gujarat, India. Correspondence to: Paresh Chandegara, E-mail: dr.paresh.chandegara@gmail.com Received February 12, 2015. Accepted March 2, 2015 preplanning or a forethought, and actus reus, which means the actual execution – should work together to constitute the crime. [2] Suicide is a lugubrious act of mankind. It reveals depth of depression in a society. Suicidal deaths represent a reasonable proxy for all kinds of tension, depression, and grief in general. As all patients of depression not been treated or supported by the health system and society, suicide can be considered as the ‘tip of the iceberg of neglected depres- sion and tension of a society’. After accidental deaths, sui- cide is the second most common factor that causes loss of most productive people of society (i.e. youth). For the same, this study explores and analyses the recent patterns of the suicidal deaths and its demographic, social, and medicolegal aspects in one of the major cities of Gujarat state. The aims and objectives of this study were as follows: ● To analyze various aspects of suicidal autopsy cases. ● To fnd out age-, sex-, religion-, season-, and month-wise variation of suicidal cases. Background: Surat is one of the fastest growing cities in Asia, situated in the southern region of the state of Gujarat, India. Suicidal deaths refect overall social and mental stress and grief of any society. We analyzed the current trend of suicidal deaths in Surat in this epidemiological study. Objective: To analyze various demographic, social, and forensic aspects of suicidal deaths in Surat. Materials and Methods: A total of 358 profles of suicidal autopsy cases were studied retrospectively, which were conducted during 2012 at GMC & NCH, Surat, Gujarat, India. The observations were compared with previous studies conducted in same region as well as studies conducted in other regions. Result: In this study, the incidence rate of suicidal deaths was 16.52% and major age group among the victims was 31–40 years (i.e. 22.06%). In 62.84% cases, the victims were male. The chief method of suicide was poisoning, used by 40.50% of deceased, involved in 45.53% of cases. Conspicuously, steep rise (21.17%) in number of suicides seen in third quarter of the year, that is, in beginning of monsoon. Conclusion: The current incidence rate of suicidal deaths in Surat shows an inclining trend recently. Maximum affected victims were middle-aged males (31–40 years) but cases of suicides of females have been increased in recent years. The chief method of suicide was poisoning and main mode of death was asphyxia. KEY WORDS: Suicidal death, suicide, autopsy, Surat Abstract Introduction By doing suicide, you don’t just ‘die’ & become ‘free’ … actually you ‘run away’ from the battlefield. Shreemad Bhagvad Geeta Suicide is defned as the act of deliberately killing one- self. [1] It is one of the leading causes of unnatural deaths. To commit a suicide, two elements – mens rea, which means