Comparison of psychiatric inpatient suicides with suicides completed in the surrounding community

We compared main characteristics of 58 (22 male and 36 female) psychiatric inpatients that committed suicide in the psychiatric hospital with all 1261 suicides (956 male and 305 female) that occurred outside hospitals in the same health district of Slovenia, all these in the period between 1985 and...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nordic journal of psychiatry 2002, Vol.56 (5), p.335-338
Main Authors: Maruši, Andrej, Tav ar, Rok, Dernovšek, Mojca, Šteblaj, Tone
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Age Factors
Atypical Depression
Community Health Services - statistics & numerical data
Depressive Disorder - complications
Depressive Disorder - diagnosis
Depressive Disorder - epidemiology
Female
Hospitals, Psychiatric - statistics & numerical data
Humans
Inpatient
Inpatients - psychology
Male
Male-FEMALE Ratio
Marital Status
Middle Aged
Sex Factors
Slovenia - epidemiology
Suicide
Suicide - psychology
Suicide - statistics & numerical data
Suicide Method
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Summary:We compared main characteristics of 58 (22 male and 36 female) psychiatric inpatients that committed suicide in the psychiatric hospital with all 1261 suicides (956 male and 305 female) that occurred outside hospitals in the same health district of Slovenia, all these in the period between 1985 and 1993. The independent t -test and cross-tabulation were used to compare the two groups on age, sex, marital status and suicide method profile. It appeared that female suicide is much more frequent in the psychiatric inpatients' group than in others. Only male psychiatric inpatients' suicides are younger than other suicide victims. Psychiatric inpatients use methods like jumping from high places and drowning more often than do others, which goes in line with the availability of methods of suicide. Apparently, the studied hospital has some wards on the third floor and majority of acute wards are located by the river. However, psychiatric inpatients do not differ from other suicide victims on marital status. Higher suicide rates in men compared with women in the population, but not in psychiatric inpatients, could be explained by the presence of so-called atypical, clinically unrecognized depression in the male population.
ISSN:0803-9488
1502-4725
DOI:10.1080/080394802760322097