Psychiatric patient suicides can be prevented

Between 1997 and 2006, 38% of out-of-clinic suicides by mental health patients were carried out by people absent without leave from the hospital. Researchers writing in the open access journal BMC Psychiatry suggest that measures to improve the ward environment or prevent patients from leaving psychiatric wards without staff agreement could avoid up to 50 suicide deaths every year.

Isabelle Hunt, from the University of Manchester, UK, worked with a team of researchers to investigate suicides in England and Wales over a ten-year period. There were 1,851 cases of suicide by current psychiatric in-patients, and 70% occurred off the ward. Four hundred and sixty-nine of these patients died after going absent without leave. Hunt said, “Compared to individuals who died when they were off the ward with staff agreement, those who absconded were more likely to be young, unemployed and homeless. Schizophrenia was the most common diagnosis, and rates of previous violence and substance misuse were high. Absconders were more likely than inpatients on agreed leave to have been legally detained for treatment, be non-compliant with medication, and to die in the first week of admission”.

The researchers suggest that a more supportive environment, tighter control of ward exits and more intensive observation of patients, particularly in the early days of admission, might be one way to limit the likelihood of a patient taking their own life. According to Hunt, “It is clearly a challenge to prevent patients leaving a general psychiatry open ward.

Our findings can, however, inform staff of the clinical characteristics associated with absconding suicides, such as schizophrenia, substance misuse and noncompliance”.

###

Notes to Editors

1. Suicide amongst psychiatric in-patients who abscond from the ward: a national clinical survey
Isabelle M Hunt, Kirsten Windfuhr, Nicola Swinson, Jenny Shaw, Louis Appleby, Nav Kapur and the National Confidential Inquiry into Suicide and Homicide by People with Mental Illness
BMC Psychiatry (in press)

During embargo, article available here: http://www.biomedcentral.com/imedia/1557802379306389_article.pdf?random=454375

After the embargo, article available at journal website: http://www.biomedcentral.com/bmcpsychiatry/

Please name the journal in any story you write. If you are writing for the web, please link to the article. All articles are available free of charge, according to BioMed Central’s open access policy.

Article citation and URL available on request at on the day of publication

2. Professor Louis Appleby is a co-author of the paper and is also the National Director of Mental Health for England. The National Confidential Inquiry into Suicide and Homicide by People with Mental Illness is based at the University of Manchester and is funded by the National Patient Safety Agency, with further funding from the Scottish Government and the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety, Northern Ireland. The Inquiry publishes annual and 5-year reports, the latest of which, “Avoidable Deaths 2006”, can be found on the Inquiry website http://www.manchester.ac.uk/nci

3. BMC Psychiatry is an open access journal publishing original peer-reviewed research articles in all aspects of the prevention, diagnosis and management of psychiatric disorders, as well as related molecular genetics, pathophysiology, and epidemiology. BMC Psychiatry (ISSN 1471-244X) is indexed/tracked/covered by PubMed, MEDLINE, CAS, EMBASE, Scopus, PsycINFO, Current Contents, Thomson Reuters (ISI) and Google Scholar.

4. BioMed Central (http://www.biomedcentral.com/) is an STM (Science, Technology and Medicine) publisher which has pioneered the open access publishing model. All peer-reviewed research articles published by BioMed Central are made immediately and freely accessible online, and are licensed to allow redistribution and reuse. BioMed Central is part of Springer Science+Business Media, a leading global publisher in the STM sector.

Contact: Graeme Baldwin

44-203-192-2165
BioMed Central

RELATED STORIES:
Want to know more about… Rapid Cycling   Binge drinking, gender and clinical depression   Predictors of Incident Depression After Hip Fracture Surgery   Brain inflammation found in autism - study   Children of Older Fathers More Likely to Have Bipolar Disorder   Diagnosing Children With Mental Illness   Depression in the Elderly   Earlier bedtimes may help protect adolescents against depression and suicidal thoughts   First Skin Patch to Treat Depression   Family stress and child’s temper extremes contribute to anxiety and depression in children   Less than 50 percent of men and women with depression see a doctor for treatment   Music Therapy Might Soften Depression Symptoms   Parents have higher levels of depression   Depression with dysphoria may need two drug types   Depression unrelated to level of chronic pain

Comments

[ + Post Your Own ]

Now you're in the public comment zone. What follows is not Armenian Medical Network's stuff; it comes from other people and we don't vouch for it. A reminder: By using this Web site you agree to accept our Terms of Service. Click here to read the Rules of Engagement.

There are no comments for this entry yet. [ + Comment here + ]