Patterns of consultation and parasuicide.

Parasuicide is common; its treatment depends on its prevention, which in turn depends on accurate identification of those at risk. When the rates of consultation and the number of prescriptions issued each year for patients who had survived parasuicide were compared with those for controls matched for age and sex the patients who had survived parasuicide were found to have attended much more frequently; their pattern of attendance had accelerated up to the time of the attempt and then decelerated. This variation was not seen in the control group. The number of prescriptions received per visit was static in both groups at all times. General practitioners should regard more frequent attendance by patients who already attend often as indicating that those patients are at risk of parasuicide.