Citation

Jung WY, Park JM, Kang CJ, Lee BD, Lee YM. J. Korean Neuropsychiatr. Assoc. 2009; 48(6): 488-495.

Affiliation

Department of Psychiatry, Pusan National University School of Medicine, Busan, Korea. jmback@pusan.ac.kr

Copyright

(Copyright © 2009, Korean Neuropsychiatric Association)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: We compared demographic and some clinical characteristics of completed and non-completed suicide victims with those of non-completed. Additionally, we analyzed Re-attempt rates of non-completed suicides' in 22-4 years re-attempt rates from index-attempt were also analyzed. METHODS: Subjects were 198 suicide victims visited admitted to the Pusan National University Hospital Emergency medical center after attempting suicide of Pusan national university hospital during 2005.1.1-to 2006.12.31. Data In February 2009, we retrospectively collected the data on these persons were collected retrospectively in Feb. 2009 from medical records and telephone interviews. We analyzed their demographic data, history of previous suicide attempts, psychiatric treatments, if any, and number of re-attempts in during the 2-4 years after the index-attempt were analyzed. RESULTS: Thirty-three were dead victims were killed by the attempt (completed suicides), and 165 were discharged alive (non-completed suicides). Only 94 cases victims (47.5%) were consulted referred to the psychiatric department. Among the 121 survivors followed survivors we followed-up on, 17 (14.0%) re-attempted within 2-4 years and 2 (1.2%) were dead eventually died within that time frame. Twenty one (63.6%) of the 33 completed suicides, 21 (63.6%) were making their were dead by the first suicide attempt. No psychiatrist was contacted regarding these victims and did not received any psychiatric evaluation nor treatment. The completed group was consisted of men who were older, married, and/or physically ill. Forty-five (27.3%) of 165 non-completed suicides had previous history of suicide attempts. The non-completed group was characterized by higher rates of previous history of psychiatric treatment, psychiatric referrals, and re-attempts during the followed-up period. Sixty-five (53.7%) of the survivors received psychiatric treatments for 8.9+/-15.4 months (mean+/-SD), but their re-attempt rate (16.9%) in over 2-4 years did not significantly differ from that (10.7%) of those who did not receive treatment (10.7%). CONCLUSION: About 2/3 of completed suicides occurs at the first attempt. These cases were on in psychiatry' the blind spot, of psychiatry because most of them did not visited psychiatry receive psychiatric attention when they were alive and were not reported to the psychiatry department after death. Psychiatric autopsies on such victims is necessary to develop more effective suicide screening tools and preventive programs.