As opposed to suicide that is officially registered risk factors for suicide attempts are more difficult to establish. Therefore, a large data set of inpatients in a university hospital was transformed and analyzed for accompanying risk factors at admission of suicidal patients.

Apart from standard hospital data additional items were also derived from medical records and follow-up entries. The initial data file consisted of 16,895 data sets (i.e., hospitalizations) from year 1985 until 2005 that was transformed into a final file with 5,146 consistent data sets covering 233 variables. The analysis is based on a main group classification into suicide attempts 'positive” and suicide attempts 'negative”. Statistical analysis was done with Mann-Whitney-U-Tests, CHI2, correlation coefficients (r and ϕCOLE) and logistic regression.

Patients with suicide attempts were significantly younger and were at higher risk for personality disorder (RR=1.69, p<0.001), affective disorder (RR=1.49, p<0.001) and neurotic disorder (RR=1.37, p<0.001). Male individuals and those with repeated suicide attempts used the more severe methods. Further risk factors included suicidality at admission, childhood trauma or abuse, and suicide of related parties (RR's between 1.39 and 3.07). Patients with suicide attempts showed higher numbers of hospitalizations though shorter duration of their inpatient treatment than patients without suicide attempts.

By means of a large and elaborated data file of inpatients a profile of risk factors for attempted suicide was identified providing a basis for more close intervention during inpatient treatment and thereafter.