Suicidal behaviour recurrence in psychiatric emergency departments of patients without a prior suicide attempt, index and reattempters: A prospective study

Abstract

Introduction

There has been little change in the incidence of suicidal behaviour and reattempts in recent years. Evidence is needed on the incidence of suicidal behaviour in the psychiatric population and its follow-up.

Material and method

A prospective multi-centre case–control study. The sample covered the cases of 440 patients seen as psychiatric emergencies. For this purpose, we used the Vital Adverse Event Scale by Brugha and screening with the Columbia Scale. The sample was divided into three groups: patients without prior suicide attempts, patients with an index attempt and patients with more than one attempt. At two years, the clinical histories of these patients were reviewed, assessing for suicidal behaviour.

Results

A total of 49.1% (n = 216) of the patients required urgent psychiatric care during the follow-up period, and 2.7% eventually committed suicide. The data shows a differential profile between the three groups analysed. Among them, the group of reattempters required the highest number of interventions regarding suicide behaviour (11.0%; χ² = 30.3; d.f. = 2; p < .001). Eventually, 6.1% of the patients without prior suicide attempts tried to commit suicide for the first time, and 21.7% (n = 60) of the remaining sample repeated their prior attempts. The highest risk of attempt was in the thirty days following the urgent intervention. After this period, risk distribution varied for each group. Three items from the Columbia Scale predict suicide behaviour.

Conclusions

The results show the need for assessing suicidal behaviour for all patients who receive psychiatric urgent care, including during the follow-up period. A more thorough control should be performed during the first months for patients without prior suicide attempts, and longer periods for those patients who have already tried to commit suicide.