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Survey of suicides in the Fife region of Scotland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Fergus Douds  and
Vicky Bridges
Fergus Douds*
Affiliation:
Edinburgh Healthcare NHS Trust William Fraser Centre, Tipperlinn Rood, Morningside, Edinburgh EH10 5HF
Vicky Bridges
Affiliation:
St Lawrence Hospital Bodmin
*
∗Correspondence
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Abstract

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Aims and methods

Suicides in the Fife region were investigated over a two-year period. The timing of the final contact with general practitioners and psychiatric services was ascertained. Data were collected from procurators fiscal records, general practices, and where applicable, psychiatric records.

Results

There were 74 suicide victims during the study period. Forty-six per cent of suicide victims saw their general practitioner in the month before death, and 55% had a history of previous contact with psychiatric services, although only 27% of this group saw a psychiatrist in the month before death.

Clinical implications

Clinical audit of suicide is an important task for psychiatric services. Practitioners must continually assess risk and attempt, where possible, to reduce risk factors.

Type
Original papers
Information
Psychiatric Bulletin , Volume 23 , Issue 5 , May 1999 , pp. 267 - 269
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © 1999 The Royal College of Psychiatrists

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