NGUYEN, Trinh Xuan Phu (Harry)
Student ID: 110126185

A Critical Comparison of Causation and Method of Suicide in Lithuania and Pakistan

The World Health organisation lists very diverse reasons for global mortality, such as cancer, accidents, drowning, alcohol poisoning, and homicides. One of them is suicide, which has become a global phenomenon. According to the World Health Organisation (2008) cited in
Varnik (2012, p. 760), suicides are estimated amount to 782 thousand in the world, which accounted for 1.4% of total death and 15% of injury death incidence. The number of people who end their own life is increasing slowly throughout every year. It is varies from developed countries to developing countries in different domains such as ages, genders, living standard or social position. According to Milner and Leo (2010), low income countries have suicide rates greater than high income countries. This is because they have to face many problems such as poverty, social and political challenges (Milner & Leo 2010). This essay will discuss the similarity and differences between the Republic of Lithuania, which has the highest suicide incident in the world, and Pakistan which has one of the lowest rates. It will use causes of suicide and methods used as a basis for comparison.

The first point of this comparison between the two countries is causation. Buivydas,
Cerniauskas and Dobravolskas (2013, p. 26) stated that unemployment and income unfairness contribute to increasing the number of suicidal rate in Republic of Lithuania. Due to the permanent history of social dramatic decline and long­term unemployed affects, it leads to

Page | 1

the significant raise of suicidal ratio, which caused heavy impoverishment in Lithuania
(Buivydas, Cerniauskas & Dobravolskas 2013, p. 26; Milner & Leo 2010). Buivydas,
Cerniauskas and Dobravolskas (2013, p. 26) also assert that there is a strong relationship between the incidence of people who would like to end their life and number of social assistance benefits. This is because the economic restriction of Lithuania is not enough to afford for social assistance benefits. Another important reason which also leads to the essential increase of suicide is mental health illness. According to State Mental Health Centre cited in Murauskiene et al. (2013, p.12), a poor mental health can lead to high suicide incidence and contribute to increase the ratio of addiction related disorders. Moreover, abuse of medication and regular anxiety also cause high suicide rate (Garuoliene, Alonderis &
Marcinkevicius 2011 cited in Murauskiene et al. 2013, p.12­13). On the other hand, Pakistan is known as a country has lowest suicide rate surprisingly. The most common causation is due to the enormous rate of unemployment and poor mental health services. In fact, more than 80% suicide victims is involved into emotional disorders such as depression, alcohol use disorders, epilepsy, intellectual disability and schizophrenia (Tahir et al. 2012, p.113).
Similarly with Lithuania, unemployment is also a main factor lead to gain the suicide rates.
Tahir et al. (2012, p.114) mentioned that depressive disorders, development of economic unstableness, great unemployment ratios are the key of develop the suicidal behaviours.
Besides that, there are other reasons for the difference in Lithuania, such as weaknesses in education, retaliation or revenge for drone attacks and insufficient social justice (Shinwari
2012, p.71). The reason why Pakistan is difference with Lithuania about this is that