Citation

Pajonk FG. Anasthesiologie und Intensivmedizin 2000; 41(10): 783-788.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2000)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

More than 12,000 suicides and at least 75,000 suicide attempts in Germany in each year pose a challenge for emergency personell. Up to now, this topic has been neglected in emergency medicine. Particular problems are the assessment of the risk of suicide as well as legal issues. This article describes the prevalence and relevance of suicidal ideation in emergency services and provides help for the risk assessment. Additionally, the principles of crisis intervention and therapy are presented. Although each patient has to be treated individually, basic patterns of attitude and behaviour have to he trained so that the staff are able to apply them in a concrete situation.

Language: en

Keywords

article; Crisis intervention; emergency health service; Emergency medical services; Germany; human; legal aspect; patient attitude; risk assessment; Risk factors; suicide; Suicide