Hospital Suicides: Are There Preventable Factors?

Abstract

The coroner's and hospital records of 57 consecutive in-patient or day-patient suicides were examined. There was a preponderance of males, but no difference between the sexes in violent deaths. The patients were generally chronically ill, and risk of suicide continued indefinitely after diagnosis. Risk was recorded in the medical notes for 16 patients and in the nursing notes for 12, but only six were under special observation. Half the patients were thought to be improving at the time of death. Psychiatrists and coroners should pay attention to aspects such as nursing and environmental factors in suicides in order to identify those at risk.