Kota Kinabalu: The recent case of a 30-year-old specialist who committed suicide in Lahad Datu is an alarm bell that issues regarding depression and mental health cannot be taken lightly.
Holistic medicine should include the mental aspect that we cannot see physically, said Sabah Medical Association President Datuk Dr Christina Rundi.
“When we want to find out on how many people in Sabah committed suicide in the past. There is no available data. Some families might not want to report on suicide,” she said.
Dr Rundi drew attention to overworked doctors suffering from burnout which affect mental health. She and Gynaecologist and Obstetrician Dr Felice Huang were fellow houseman serving in Queen Elizabeth Hospital during the start of their medical career and recalled that they were very well looked after by their nurses. It may not be so today.
She recalled a recent case of a 16-year-old student who fell or leaped off a high-rise building and wished there was a counselling service that the student could have reached out to for help.
Dr Rundi is concerned over disturbing trends in the Adolescence Health survey 2022 – on those studying in Form 1 to Form 5 in Malaysia.
“There were 280 schools selected nationwide to participate in the survey and 16 were from Sabah with about 2,342 students selected to give feedback on their prevalent health risk behaviour from loneliness, inability to sleep due to worry, suicidal ideation, suicidal plan, suicidal attempt to depression.
“20 per cent reported suffering from loneliness, 15 per cent had sleep worry woes. 15 per cent had entertained suicide thoughts and 10 per cent had made a suicide attempt while 30 per cent suffered from depression.”
The statistics from Sabah showed a higher percentage than the national average figures. Depression is a common mental health problem among adolescents worldwide. It can manifest as symptoms such as sadness, guilt, low self-esteem, a lack of happiness and dissatisfaction with their surroundings.
Depression can also cause individual problems such as difficulty sleeping, loss of appetite, lack of energy, and easy despair, leading to suicidal ideation.
