Suicide among psychiatric patients of a district general hospital

Abstract

Synopsis: Twenty-two psychiatric patients who committed suicide while receiving hospital treatment or within 3 months of discharge from psychiatric care were studied using general population statistics, a random sample of 100 psychiatric patients and a control group matched individually with the hospital suicides. The rate of suicide among psychiatric in-patients was over 50 times that in the general population. A higher vulnerability to suicide was detected among in-patients (v. other patient groups), men (v. women) and middle-aged patients (v. older and younger patients). Suicides were differentiated from controls in having suffered more losses (P < 0·05), being psychiatrically ill for the first time (P < 0·05), having a past history of deliberate self-harm (P < 0·05), and not receiving a schizophrenic diagnosis (P < 0·02). People with mid-life crises, patients who swing rapidly into depression while receiving treatment, and individuals who are judged to be depressed because of personal problems may carry a particularly high suicide risk during psychiatric treatment.