Citation

Ho TP. Suicide Life Threat. Behav. 2006; 36(6): 682-686.

Affiliation

Dept. of Psychiatry at Queen Mary Hospital in Hong Kong.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2006, American Association of Suicidology, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1521/suli.2006.36.6.682

PMID

17250472

Abstract

A retrospective cohort of discharged patients from all public psychiatric hospitals in Hong Kong (1997-1999) was linked to suicide data from Coroner's court. Patients hospitalized shorter than 15 days had significantly lower suicide rates than longer stay patients. The results were fairly consistent across immediate/late post discharge periods, gender, age, diagnoses, and narrow/wide definitions of suicide. This finding was opposite of what has been reported in the literature. Short hospitalization carried different suicide risks in different service settings.

Language: en