Suicidal behaviour in HIV-infected patients in Greece

This study investigated suicide completion and suicide attempts by HIV-infected patients in Greece, which, from the existing literature, are more frequent than those among the general population. The study sample comprised HIV-infected patients who had been monitored for a minimum period of six months from 1992 through 2012 at the "Andreas Sygros" University Hospital in Athens. Among the 1884 patients who were monitored during the study period, 37 suicides were attempted by 28 (1.48%) patients (27 men and 1 woman). Six of them were fatal (0.3%, 52/100,000 person-years) while over the study, 397 patients died. No significant differences concerning main characteristics were recorded among patients with an attempted and those with a completed suicide. Seventeen of the 28 patients (60.71%) demonstrated psychiatric morbidities. Suicide attempts were more numerous before the advent of combined antiretroviral therapy (cART), whereas there was no difference in attempts before and after the Greek financial crisis in 2009. The suicide frequency was higher than that of the general population for the same period. However, it decreased after the introduction of cART. Special attention is required in recording coexisting mental disorders and providing specialized psychiatric care to HIV-infected patients.