Citation

Lawrence DM, Holman CD, Jablensky AV, Fuller SA. Aust. N. Zeal. J. Public Health 1999; 23(5): 468-470.

Affiliation

Department of Public Health, University of Western Australia, Nedlands. davidl@dph.uwa.edu.au

Copyright

(Copyright © 1999, Public Health Association of Australia, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

10575766

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To study trends in the rate of suicide in psychiatric patients in Western Australia. To examine the associations of suicide with demographic and clinical factors. METHODS: A population-based cohort of 52,010 individuals whose first psychiatric admission occurred in 1980-95 was identified from the Health Services Research Linked Database. There were 471 deaths by suicide by 31 December 1995. Age standardised suicide rates per 1,000 person-years at risk were calculated. Suicide rates in the first year after a patient's first admission were also examined and a proportional hazards regression analysis was performed to examine risk factors for suicide. RESULTS: Male psychiatric patients were 3.4 times more likely to commit suicide than female patients (95% CI 2.76-4.24). Younger patients were at higher risk than older patients, and patients with extended periods of in-patient treatment were at more than double the risk of short-stay patients. Over the 16-year period, the rate of suicide in the first year after first psychiatric admission was found to increase by 3.4% a year (95% CI -0.7-7.6%). CONCLUSIONS: The findings confirm that psychiatric patients are at high risk of suicide. Patient outcomes in terms of risk of suicide after hospital discharge have deteriorated. IMPLICATIONS: Improvements are needed in the provision of community support to high risk psychiatric patients. Further work should be done to identify patients at highest risk of suicide.

Language: en