TY  - JOUR
PY  - 1999//
TI  - Suicide rates in psychiatric in-patients: an application of record linkage to mental health research
JO  - Australian and New Zealand journal of public health
A1  - Lawrence, David M.
A1  - Holman, C. D.
A1  - Jablensky, A. V.
A1  - Fuller, S. A.
SP  - 468
EP  - 470
VL  - 23
IS  - 5
N2  - OBJECTIVE: To study trends in the rate of suicide in psychiatric patients in Western Australia. To examine the associations of suicide with demographic and clinical factors. METHODS: A population-based cohort of 52,010 individuals whose first psychiatric admission occurred in 1980-95 was identified from the Health Services Research Linked Database. There were 471 deaths by suicide by 31 December 1995. Age standardised suicide rates per 1,000 person-years at risk were calculated. Suicide rates in the first year after a patient's first admission were also examined and a proportional hazards regression analysis was performed to examine risk factors for suicide. RESULTS: Male psychiatric patients were 3.4 times more likely to commit suicide than female patients (95% CI 2.76-4.24). Younger patients were at higher risk than older patients, and patients with extended periods of in-patient treatment were at more than double the risk of short-stay patients. Over the 16-year period, the rate of suicide in the first year after first psychiatric admission was found to increase by 3.4% a year (95% CI -0.7-7.6%). CONCLUSIONS: The findings confirm that psychiatric patients are at high risk of suicide. Patient outcomes in terms of risk of suicide after hospital discharge have deteriorated. IMPLICATIONS: Improvements are needed in the provision of community support to high risk psychiatric patients. Further work should be done to identify patients at highest risk of suicide.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 1326-0200
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/
ID  - ref1
ER  -