Violence and its repercussions in the field of health is a topic that
has been studied in social and health sciences, although there are som
e theoretical and methodical questions that have not been completely s
olved, that make it difficult to develop research in this area. Only r
ecently public health workers have been involved in the problems of de
ath caused by intentional injuries such as homicides and suicides. For
its frequency in people with mental health problems, the professional
s in this field are theones who have worked in the study and preventio
n of this problem, but always since a clinical perspective. Neverthele
ss, the global knowledge about suicide requires research from a genera
l population perspective in order to identify the high risk groups. Th
is paper analyzes from this point of view, the suicides ocurring durin
g 1973-1993, registered in the mortality data base, chapter E950-E959
of the Ministery of Health. The studied variables were: age, sex, caus
e of death, state and year. Trends and relative risks (RR) were analyz
ed with a 95 % of confidence interval (CI) using the Regression Poisso
n Model. The average number of suicides rose from 3 in 1979 to 6 in 19
93. The trend is to increase, beta = .035 (CI .032 - .038). The main c
auses of death by suicide were: hanging, firearms and explosives and p
oissoning by solid and liquid substances. Differences can be seen depe
nding on the sex. In males the Trend is to increase with beta .041 (CI
.038 - .045), Hanging was the main cause (49 %). The age group of 70
years and over present the higher relative risk, 9.46 (CI 8.86 - 10.1)
. In women, the trend is slightly to increase but is not statistically
significant. The main cause was Poissoning by Liquid and solid substa
nces (35 %), and the higher risk group was 20 to 24 years old, RR 2.51
(CI 2.28 - 2.76). The States of Tabasco, Campeche, Baja California Su
r and Quintana Roo, present the Higher Risk to death by suicide. It is
necesary to point out that the study based on mortality data, is just
part of a wider problem that goes from nonregistered suicides to suic
idal ideation, and suicidal equivalent that means all the non-fatal se
lf inflicted injuries. The differences observed among age, sex and geo
graphical region, show that there are more social aspects involved rat
her than individual aspects that need to take into account in order to
know the real problem of suicide. It is necessary too, to pay attenti
on about the self-inflicted Injuries problems and its research in the
health area and to emphasize the need to propose solution measures sin
ce the interdisciplinary point of view.