[Effect of therapy variables on suicide of released psychiatric clinic patients. Results of a controlled study]

We studied therapeutic factors influencing the risk of suicide during outpatient treatment. A total of 64 former psychiatric inpatients who had committed suicide within one year after their discharge were compared with the same number of control patients fulfilling the following matching criteria: sex, age, RDC diagnosis, year of discharge and length of observation period. There were no significant differences between the two groups in psycho-social or clinical pre-discharge variables including previous suicidal behavior, but the suicide subjects became more frequently suicidal during the post-discharge outpatient treatment. The formal conditions of the treatment were comparable in both groups. However, the control patients were treated by therapists with substantially longer professional experience and they also more frequently received psychopharmacological agents including lithium.