Suicide and other unexpected deaths among psychiatric in-patients: the Bristol confidential inquiry

Article Abstract:

A survey of unexpected deaths among psychiatric in-patients between April 1982 and September 1984 in Bristol, England was performed. Coroner inquest records were matched with hospital record information. All deaths that were determined to be from suicide, accident, natural or unknown causes were noted. Twenty-seven patients (11 men with an average age of 51 years and 16 women with an average age of 47.4 years) had committed suicide. Five patients unexpectedly died of head injury, burning, pneumonia, or in a car accident. All those who died had been psychiatric in-patients at the time of death or had been discharged within two months prior to death. Fourteen of those who died had been diagnosed with depressive disorder; six were schizophrenic; three had a personality disorder; two were diagnosed with dementia; and the others suffered from either postpartum depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, or an eating disorder. The range of suicidal methods included drug overdose, jumping, drowning, burning, hanging, stabbing, and suffocation with a plastic bag. All of the drowning suicides (five) were women. All hangings (three) were among hospitalized men. Three suicides (two by burning and one by suffocation) took place in the hospital. Three other suicides occurred among treated outpatients whose risk for suicide had been diagnosed as minimal. Only eleven of the patients who died had been diagnosed as high-risk. These findings suggest that the potential for suicide risk is inadequately assessed and that the clinical management of patients at risk requires further study and evaluation. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)

Evaluation, Psychiatric hospital patients

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Characteristics of suicide attempters in a population-based sample of Dutch adolescents

Article Abstract:

The importance of identifying those at risk for suicide is important in the development of appropriate preventive measures. In the Netherlands, one study found that 9 percent of those who attempted suicide repeated the attempt within a year, and 3 percent of depressed individuals in the study made a suicide attempt. It is known that individuals who have previously attempted suicide are at greatest risk for attempts in the future. In a sample of 9,393 adolescent Dutch boys and girls aged 14 years to 20 years, several factors were identified which correlated with suicidal behavior. Through data provided on questionnaires, it was found that suicide attempters more often came from broken homes, used drugs, lived with a single parent or were orphaned, were more depressed, and were form a lower socioeconomic status than nonattempters. Females were over-represented among suicide attempters as well. A predictive model based upon these results identified 73 percent of the attempters and 85 percent of the nonattempters correctly, suggesting that the factors indicated in this study can be useful predictors for the identification of risk for suicidal behavior in Dutch adolescents. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)

Netherlands, Risk factors

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Self-poisoning in adolescents: hospital admissions and deaths in the Oxford region 1980-85

Article Abstract:

Data of a study cohort carried out in England between the years 1980 and 1985 are evaluated for trends in hospital admission rates for deliberate self-poisoning among adolescents aged 10 to 20 years. After the first admission, subsequent admissions for poisoning and any related deaths through the end of 1985 were identified by record linkage. The death rate in the study cohort was significantly higher than expected for the general population. There were 4,007 hospital admissions for poisoning between 1980 and 1985 among 10 to 20 year-olds, but only 36 were children under age 12. Between 1980 and 1985, there was a small, but statistically significant, decline in admission rates that was largely attributable to a decline in admissions among 16-to 20-year-old females. Repeated episodes of self-poisoning were generally low (6.6 percent), but were slightly higher for females. Total female admission rates were substantially higher than male rates. When compared with similar data gathered from 1974 to 1979, admission rates for self-poisoning in among adolescents have not declined. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)

Surveys, Self-poisoning, Self poisoning

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