Citation

Haynes RL, Marques JK. Suicide Life Threat. Behav. 1984; 14(2): 113-125.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1984, American Association of Suicidology, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

6334911

Abstract

The case records of 29 mentally disordered offenders who committed suicide in a state hospital were reviewed. Information was collected on demographic and clinical characteristics; time, method and location of the suicides; and the presence of suicide indicators. Comparisons were made between the characteristics of the suicide patients and those of the current hospital population. Major findings were: 80 percent of the suicides were committed by psychotic patients and 66 percent were by patients with diagnoses which included paranoia; 48 percent of the suicide patients had been charged with or convicted of murder or attempted murder; most suicides occurred in individual patient rooms; nearly 50 percent of the patients had a history of suicide attempts; and other common indicators of suicide risk were often masked by psychotic symptomatology. Several recommendations for identifying and managing potentially suicidal patients in this population are presented.