The Role of Suicide Risk in the Decision for Psychiatric Hospitalization After a Suicide Attempt

Background: Suicide prevention can be improved by knowing which variables physicians take into account when considering hospitalization or discharge of patients who have attempted suicide. Aims: To test whether suicide risk is an adequate explanatory variable for predicting admission to a psychiatri...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Crisis : the journal of crisis intervention and suicide prevention 2011-01, Vol.32 (2), p.65-73
Main Authors: Miret, Marta, Nuevo, Roberto, Morant, Consuelo, Sainz-Cortón, Enrique, Jiménez-Arriero, Miguel Ángel, López-Ibor, Juan J, Reneses, Blanca, Saiz-Ruiz, Jerónimo, Baca-García, Enrique, Ayuso-Mateos, José Luis
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Attempted Suicide
Checklist
Child
Emergency Services
Female
Hospitalization
Hospitals, General
Hospitals, Public
Human
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Probability
Psychiatric Department, Hospital
Psychiatric Hospital Admission
Psychiatric Hospitalization
Risk Assessment
Spain
Suicidal Ideation
Suicide
Suicide - prevention & control
Suicide - psychology
Suicide - statistics & numerical data
Suicide, Attempted - prevention & control
Suicide, Attempted - psychology
Suicide, Attempted - statistics & numerical data
Young Adult
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Summary:Background: Suicide prevention can be improved by knowing which variables physicians take into account when considering hospitalization or discharge of patients who have attempted suicide. Aims: To test whether suicide risk is an adequate explanatory variable for predicting admission to a psychiatric unit after a suicide attempt. Methods: Analyses of 840 clinical records of patients who had attempted suicide (66.3% women) at four public general hospitals in Madrid (Spain). Results: 180 (21.4%) patients were admitted to psychiatric units. Logistic regression analyses showed that explanatory variables predicting admission were: male gender; previous psychiatric hospitalization; psychiatric disorder; not having a substance-related disorder; use of a lethal method; delay until discovery of more than one hour; previous attempts; suicidal ideation; high suicidal planning; and lack of verbalization of adequate criticism of the attempt. Conclusions: Suicide risk appears to be an adequate explanatory variable for predicting the decision to admit a patient to a psychiatric ward after a suicide attempt, although the introduction of other variables improves the model. These results provide additional information regarding factors involved in everyday medical practice in emergency settings.
ISSN:0227-5910
2151-2396
DOI:10.1027/0227-5910/a000050