Men write more suicide notes than women - study

A suicide note, one of 68 collected by Shalini Girdhar for a study, is seen in this August 14, 2008 photo. Men write more suicide notes than women and are likely to leave behind instructions on how to provide for their family, said a study conducted by Girdhar, a doctor at Delhi's All India Institute of Medical Sciences.

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Men write more suicide notes than women and are likely to leave behind instructions on how to provide for their family, a study conducted in India said.

People who kill themselves over the weekend are also more likely to leave behind suicide notes, the study said.

"Men have gone about giving detailed instructions on how to care for their families in their absence," said Shalini Girdhar, a doctor at New Delhi's state-run All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).

"Anshoo, I love you. The keys are in your dressing table drawer," a 28-year-old man who hanged himself wrote to his wife.

Girdhar, who went through 425 cases of suicide and collected

68 notes in two years, said her study revealed that women hardly ever blame others in their suicide notes.

Scribbled hastily on pages torn out of personal diaries, many of the notes reflect the anguish of people who had succumbed to depression.

A suicide note found scribbled on an empty medicine carton revealed that the writer, a 35-year-old man, had admitted defeat in his fight against clinical depression.

Another sketched a portrait of his wife and signed off with a simple "Forgive me."

Most of the suicide notes were found in the pockets of victims or on table-tops.

Some also write them in the format of an application, even while addressing their parents, spouse or siblings, Girdhar said.

"Life starts --- Aug 8, 1982. Life ends --- Sept 8, 2001," a teenager wrote before hanging himself, a method of death the study found was preferred by men.

There are also cases of unrequited love.

"In my next life, I hope I do not become a bhoot (ghost) and become a perfect person," a teenager wrote after being abandoned by her boyfriend.

Girdhar's study found that suicide notes were mostly written by educated and middle-class Indians.