Risk Factors for Suicide in Psychiatric Patients

Abstract

• In a matched controlled study of 90 psychiatric patient suicides, I found that significantly more of the suicides suffered from chronic schizophrenia (33.3%) or recurrent affective disorder (18.8%) and had made a previous suicide attempt (46.6%). The suicides were young and significantly more were unmarried (84.5%), unemployed (66%), living alone, (55.5%) and depressed (65.5%), and 44.4% had a primary diagnosis of depressive disorder. Of the 75 outpatient suicides, 58% had seen a psychiatrist within the previous week, 61 of the 75 (81.3%) had been admitted in their last episode of contact, and 44% of these suicided within a month of discharge.