Suicide among psychiatric patients of a district general hospital

Twenty-two psychiatric patients who committed suicide while receiving hospital treatment or within 3 months of discharge from psychiatric care were studied using general population statistics, a random sample of 100 psychiatric patients and a control group matched individually with the hospital suicides. The rate of suicide among psychiatric in-patients was over 50 times that in the general population. A higher vulnerability to suicide was detected among in-patients (v. other patient groups), men (v. women) and middle-aged patients (v. older and younger patients). Suicides were differentiated from controls in having suffered more losses (P less than 0.05), being psychiatrically ill for the first time (P less than 0.05), having a past history of deliberate self-harm (P less than 0.05), and not receiving a schizophrenic diagnosis (P less than 0.02). People with mid-life crises, patients who swing rapidly into depression while receiving treatment, and individuals who are judged to be depressed because of personal problems may carry a particularly high suicide risk during psychiatric treatment.