Without disputing the form or facts of the story titled; “10 students commit suicide every month’’ published in The Observer on Wednesday, October 3, 2018, Dr. Caroline Birungi, a psychiatrist at Makerere University’s department of Psychiatry, who was the key source interviewed for the article, has decided to revise her own statistics given to this paper in last week’s interview (Editor).
Below is her clarification.
I’m writing to clarify on the story published in The Observer titled “10 students commit suicide every month.”
I meant to say that 10 per cent of students who present to the hospital have serious mental illness (Depression, Schizophrenia, Bipolar affective disorder) and if left unattended to, they can develop complications that may lead to suicide, alcohol/substance abuse and dropping out of school among others.
Dr. Caroline Birungi, Psychiatrist/ Department of Psychiatry