Life becoming lifeless or in other words, long working hours barring any social activity or personal time further leading to depression might be a cause of suicide among police personnel, doctors suggested on Thursday. In almost every suicide, some psychological disorder is involved, they said.

Dr Rajiv Mehta, Vice Chairman, Department of Psychiatry, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital said, “Taking police into consideration, long duty hours, lack of social life and lack of personal and family time could be a reason behind committing suicide among policemen,”

According to Dr Mehta, he on regular basis treats people who undergo behaviourial changes mostly due to long working hours.

“I see almost 15 to 16 people in a month with such problems. Sometimes expectations from higher ups, pressure from the bosses may also provoke people to take such steps,” he said.

In the case of police, wrong image in the eyes of public may also affect their psychology, he said.

All these things further lead to depression, he added.

On depression, Dr Samir Parikh, Director-Department of Mental Health and Behavioral Sciences and Chairperson of Fortis National Mental Health Council said, “Depression is an epidemic now. More than 300 million people in the world suffer from it.

Research indicates that 90 per cent of the suicides committed have an underlying psychiatric condition which may not have been diagnosed or treated. Suicidal tendencies are a typical clinical feature of many psychiatric disorders typically clinical depression.”

In such a scenario, help seeking behaviour needs to be encouraged, especially given the stigma attached to mental health even today, added Dr Parikh.

“Help should not be restricted to professional mental health experts, but each one of us can even reaching out to a friend or a family member to seek support, without being dismissive or insensitive towards the person, can be beneficial,” said Dr Parikh.