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Violent Death and Mental Illness

A Study of a Single Catchment Area over Eight Years

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Elizabeth King  and
Brian Barraclough
Elizabeth King*
Affiliation:
Southampton University Department of Psychiatry, Royal South Hants Hospital, Graham Road, Southampton SO9 4PE
Brian Barraclough
Affiliation:
Southampton University Department of Psychiatry, Royal South Hants Hospital, Graham Road, Southampton
*
∗Correspondence
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Abstract

The names of 412 residents of the catchment population of a district general hospital unit who died potentially self-inflicted deaths in the eight years 1974–81 were identified. They were classified as suicide (245), accidental death (126), and undetermined (41). In each group, over half had a lifetime history of psychiatric treatment and over a third were psychiatric patients at the time of their death. The relative risk of a violent death for those who died within a year of their last psychiatric contact was 27 times greater than that of residents with no recent psychiatric contact. The relative risk was highest for those aged 35–44 and lowest for those of 75 years and over.

Type
Lecture
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 156 , Issue 5 , May 1990 , pp. 714 - 720
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1990 

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