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Psychiatric Diagnoses as Predictors of Suicide

A comparison of diagnoses at conscription and in psychiatric care in a cohort of 50 465 young men

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Peter Allebeck  and
Christer Allgulander
Peter Allebeck*
Affiliation:
Department of Medicine, Section for Community Medicine, Karolinska Institute at Huddinge University Hospital, S-14186, Huddinge, Sweden
Christer Allgulander
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Karolinska Institute at Huddinge University Hospital, Sweden
*
∗Correspondence
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Extract

In a cohort of 50 465 Swedish men conscripted for military service in 1969–70, the relative risk for suicide was 3.1 (95% CI 2.3–4.0) among those who had a psychiatric diagnosis at conscription, and 16.7 (95% CI 13.8–20.1) among those who had a psychiatric diagnosis in in-patient care during a 13-year follow-up. Of the diagnoses at conscription, only neurotic disorder, personality disorder and drug dependence were associated with a significantly increased risk for future suicide. Among those who were admitted to hospital, almost all inpatient diagnoses were associated with a significantly increased suicide risk. Although a psychiatric diagnosis in in-patient care was a strong predictor of suicide, only 44% of all 247 men who committed suicide had ever been treated in in-patient psychiatric care.

Type
Papers
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 157 , Issue 3 , September 1990 , pp. 339 - 344
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1990 

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