Outreach Psychiatric Emergency Service.

Area of Science:

• Psychiatry
• Emergency Medicine
• Public Health

Background:

• Outreach psychiatric emergency services are crucial for managing suicidal crises.
• Empirical data on patient characteristics assessed by these services are limited.
• This study addresses the gap by analyzing patient data during suicidal crises.

Purpose of the Study:

• To characterize patients assessed by psychiatric emergency services during suicidal crises.
• To compare patient demographics, diagnoses, and referral patterns based on suicidal behavior and attempts.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of 14,705 detailed assessments from psychiatric emergency services over 5 years.
• Comparison of patient characteristics with and without suicidal behavior, and with and without suicide attempts.
• Statistical adjustment for clustered features within individual patients.

Main Results:

• Suicidal behavior was identified in 32.2% of patients; 9.2% attempted suicide.
• Suicidal behavior often linked to depression/adjustment disorder, with referrals from general practitioners or hospitals.
• Suicide attempters were more likely female, referred by general hospitals, and commonly used self-poisoning.

Conclusions:

• Suicidal behavior is a common finding in psychiatric emergency service assessments.
• Patients with and without suicide attempts exhibit differences in demographics, diagnoses, and referral origins.
• Approximately 40% of suicidal patients, with or without attempts, were admitted post-assessment.