The risk of suicide in patients with critical illness: A population-based study in Taiwan

The authors investigated retrospectively the association between critical illness and risk of suicide attempts. The data are from Taiwan's National Health Insurance Research Database. Propensity score matching, multivariable models, Kaplan-Meier analysis, and competing risk analysis were used to explore this association. The authors found that patients having an critical illness were associated with increased risk of suicide attempts after adjusting for risk factors (adjusted hazard ratio = 2.98; 95% confidence interval = 1.46-6.08). Among different subtypes of critical illness, patients with sepsis/septic shock exhibited the highest risk of suicide attempts (adjusted hazard ratio = 3.43, 95% confidence interval = 1.52-7.74). An association between critical illness and suicide attempts was shown. Sepsis/septic shock was found to confer the highest risk in these specific population.