Suicide in Belgian psychiatric inpatients. A matched case-control study in a Belgian teaching hospital

Patients admitted to a psychiatric hospital show an increased risk for suicide but specific risk factors are not well understood.

In this case-control study we describe suicides (n = 37) that took place during admission in a Flemish psychiatric teaching hospital between 2007 and 2015 and investigate predictive factors for suicide.

Inpatient suicide is a rare condition (37 patients among 20,442 admission periods between 2007 and 2015). Most inpatients who completed suicide were diagnosed with a mood disorder (68%); 38% committed suicide in the first month of hospitalization and 19% in the first week following admission. The majority of suicides took place just before or during the weekend (57%), with hanging as the prominent method (41%). Multivariate analysis showed that hopelessness was the only significant risk factor for inpatient suicide.

Inpatient suicide remains a very rare event in inpatient care. Enquiring and managing hopelessness is essential in inpatient treatment of psychiatric patients.