Relevant risk factors of repeated suicidal attempts in a sample of outpatients

Suicide is, at present, an important global public health problem; detection of risk factors can be used as a method for prevention and intervention. This study aims to identify predictors of suicide in patients with suicidal attempt retry (SAR), who are followed-up an in the Intensive Intervention Program (PII).

The sample includes patients followed up at the Intensive Intervention Program because of a previous suicidal attempt. The following variables were collected during the 12 months follow-up (baseline, 6 months and 12 months): Repeated attempts, socio-demographic and clinical variables, lack of adherence and the Beck Depression Inventory and Hopelessness Scale.

The association between SAR and qualitative study variables was performed using Chi-Square and for the quantitative, T-Student was used. The analysis was carried out with the software SPSS 19.0. The study has been approved by the Research Ethics Committee of Galicia.

Of the 319 patients, 29 (9%) of them committed a new suicidal attempt, 22 (76%) of these new attempts happened during the first 6 month of the Program. Of those who repeat the attempt, 7 (24%) have a history of a previous attempt that precede the basal attempt (P=.033) in less than 180 days. Medication overdose is the most used method, as it was used by 240 of the patients (76%). 27 (93%) kept drug overdose as their retry method, also reaching significance(P<.001).

Overdose as a method of attempt and re-attempt, and the time elapsed from the previous attempt, are the highlighted risk factors associated with repeated suicidal attempts. For this reason, it is crucial to identify patients with a new suicide attempt so that a more intense intervention and drug treatment control is delivered during the first 180 days.