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Suicide within 12 months of mental health service contact in different age and diagnostic groups

National clinical survey

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Isabelle M. Hunt ,
Navneet Kapur ,
Jo Robinson ,
Jenny Shaw ,
Sandra Flynn ,
Hayley Bailey ,
Janet Meehan ,
Harriet Bickley ,
Rebecca Parsons  and
James Burns
...Show all authors
Isabelle M. Hunt
Affiliation:
Centre for Suicide Prevention, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK
Navneet Kapur
Affiliation:
Centre for Suicide Prevention, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK
Jo Robinson
Affiliation:
Centre for Suicide Prevention, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK
Jenny Shaw
Affiliation:
Centre for Suicide Prevention, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK
Sandra Flynn
Affiliation:
Centre for Suicide Prevention, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK
Hayley Bailey
Affiliation:
Centre for Suicide Prevention, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK
Janet Meehan
Affiliation:
Centre for Suicide Prevention, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK
Harriet Bickley
Affiliation:
Centre for Suicide Prevention, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK
Rebecca Parsons
Affiliation:
Centre for Suicide Prevention, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK
James Burns
Affiliation:
Centre for Suicide Prevention, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK
Tim Amos
Affiliation:
Centre for Suicide Prevention, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK
Louis Appleby*
Affiliation:
Centre for Suicide Prevention, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK
*
Professor Louis Appleby, Centre for Suicide Prevention, University of Manchester, Williamson Building, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK. E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

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Background

Suicide prevention is a health service priority but the most effective approaches to prevention may differ between different patient groups.

Aims

To describe social and clinical characteristics in cases of suicide from different age and diagnostic groups.

Method

A national clinical survey of a 4-year (1996–2000) sample of cases of suicide in England and Wales where there had been recent (< 1 year) contact with mental health services (n=4859).

Results

Deaths of young patients were characterised by jumping from a height or in front of a vehicle, schizophrenia, personality disorder, unemployment and substance misuse. In older patients, drowning, depression, living alone, physical illness, recent bereavement and suicide pacts were more common. People with schizophrenia were often in-patients and died by violent means. About athird of people with depressive disorder died within a year of illness onset. Those with substance dependence or personality disorder had high rates of disengagement from services.

Conclusions

Prevention measures likely to benefit young people include targeting schizophrenia, dual diagnosis and loss of service contact; those aimed at depression, isolation and physical ill-health should have more effect on elderly people.

Type
Papers
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 188 , Issue 2 , February 2006 , pp. 135 - 142
Copyright
Copyright © 2006 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

Footnotes

†

See pp. 129–134 and 143–147, this issue.

Declaration of Interest

L.A. is the National Director of Mental Health for England. Funding detailed in Acknowledgements.

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