Suicide and suicide attempts in adults: exploring suicide risk 24 months after a psychiatric emergency room visit.

OBJECTIVE

Suicide risk (including attempted and completed suicide) should be measured over short periods of time after contacting health services. The objective of this study was to identify the patterns of attempted and completed suicides within 24-months of a psychiatric emergency department visit, as well as to investigate predictive risk factors, including sociodemographic and clinical variables, previous suicidal behavior, and service utilization.

METHOD

A convenience sample (n=147), recruited at a general hospital's psychiatric emergency room, included patients with suicidal ideation, suicidal plans or previous suicide attempts. These patients were followed for 24 months, focusing on two main outcomes: attempted and completed suicides.

RESULTS

After six months there were no completed suicides and 36 suicide attempts, while after 24 months there were seven completed suicides and 69 suicide attempts. A final logistic regression model for suicide attempts at 24 months identified somatic pathology and the number of previous psychiatric hospitalizations as predictive factors, with a good area under the receiver operating characteristic curve.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings showed distinct patterns of attempted and completed suicides over time, indicating the importance of a systematic multidisciplinary suicide risk evaluation in psychiatric emergency rooms.