The purpose of the study is to determine the importance of primary forensic medical data in the formation of statistical reporting on suicidal mortality using the example of a comparative analysis of hangings encoded as suicides and as injuries with uncertain intentions.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

A retrospective analysis of the data on medical death certificates of victims of hangings in the Saratov region for the ten-year period from 2014 to 2023 was carried out.

RESULTS AND CONCLUSION

The established dynamics of the progressive increase in hangings encoded as injuries with uncertain intentions (IUI), the uniformity of samples of hangings-suicides and hangings-IUI with a doubtful probability of any other kind of death by hanging, except suicide, allow us to speak about the underestimation of the suicide rate. The reason for this can be considered the established procedure for registering the type of death in primary forensic medical documentation, according to which, in the absence of information about the type of death from law enforcement agencies, the expert is forced to classify these cases into a group of injuries with uncertain intentions, namely, this information is the basis for the formation of statistical reporting on suicidal mortality.