Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-fscjk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-31T14:44:15.618Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Hospital Suicides: Are There Preventable Factors?

Profile of the Psychiatric Hospital Suicide

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Seng Eng Goh ,
Paula H. Salmons  and
R. M. Whittington
Seng Eng Goh
Affiliation:
Rubery Hospital, Birmingham; Department of Psychological Medicine, University Hospital Kuala Lumpar, Malaysia
Paula H. Salmons*
Affiliation:
Burton Road Hospital, Dudley DY1 3BX
R. M. Whittington
Affiliation:
Districts of Birmingham and Solihull
*
∗Hope Hospital, Eccles Old Road, Salford M6 8HD
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

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.

Type
Papers
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 154 , Issue 2 , February 1989 , pp. 247 - 249
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1989 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Black, D. W., Warrack, G. & Winokur, G. (1985) The Iowa record-linkage study. Suicides and accidental deaths among psychiatric patients. Archives of General Psychiatry, 42, 71–75.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Copas, J. B. & Robin, A. (1982) Suicide in psychiatric inpatients. British Journal of Psychiatry, 141, 503–511.Google Scholar
Crammer, J. L. (1984) The special characteristics of suicide in hospital inpatients. British Journal of Psychiatry, 145, 460–476.Google Scholar
Farberrow, N. L., Ganzler, S., Cutter, F., et al (1971) An eight year survey of hospital suicides. Life-Threatening Behaviour, 1, 184–202.Google Scholar
Gale, S. W., Mesnikoff, A., Fine, J., et al (1980) A study of suicide in state mental hospitals. Psychiatric Quarterly, 52, 201–213.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hesso, R. (1977) Suicide in Norwegian, Finnish and Swedish psychiatric hospitals. Archiv für Psychiatrie und Nervenkrankheiten, 224, 119–127.Google Scholar
Rabiner, C. J., Wegner, J. T. & Kane, J. M. (1982) Suicide in a psychiatric population. Psychiatric Hospital, 13, 55–59.Google Scholar
Rorsman, B. (1973) Suicide in psychiatric patients: a comparative study. Social Psychiatry, 8, 55–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Salmons, P. H. (1984) Suicide in high buildings. British Journal of Psychiatry, 145, 469–472.Google Scholar
Sims, A. & O'Brien, K. (1979) Autokabalesis: an account of mentally ill people who jump from buildings. Medicine, Science and the Law, 19, 195–198.Google Scholar
Sletten, I. W., Brown, M. L., Evenson, R. C., et al (1972) Suicide in mental hospital patients. Diseases of the Nervous System, 33, 328–334.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.