KARACHI: Professor Murad Moosa Khan, a known psychologist of Pakistan, has been elected as the president of the International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP), the first Asian as well as the first Pakistani in the 60-year history of the association.
According to an announcement on Wednesday, Khan, a professor of psychiatry at the Aga Khan University, was selected as head of the association at the recently concluded 29th IASP World Congress.
Suicide has emerged as a serious mental health issue as more than 800,000 people are registered to take their own lives every year across the globe.
Around 90 per cent of people who take their lives suffer from some sort of mental health illness at the time of suicide, of which clinical depression is the most common condition.
Psychiatrists are unanimous in their opinion that most suicides are preventable and that in most of the developing countries social factors such as unemployment, lack of access to health, education, housing, transport, justice, and poor law and order create a lot of stress.
Severe stress can lead to depression and other mental health illnesses that could lead the individual to think about committing suicide.
WHO identifies it as the second leading cause of death among people aged between 15-29 years in different parts of the world. Worse is the fact that there were many more people who attempt a suicide.
Although no official data is available for Pakistan, it is estimated that between 130,000-300,000 people attempt suicide and 13,000-15,000 people take their lives every year.
