Youth visiting the emergency department after a suicide attempt, suicidal ideation or non-suicidal self-injury: trends, repeat visits and costs.

Background: In The Netherlands, it is unknown whether the number of youth suicide-related emergency department visits has changed over time. Also, insight is needed in the hospital costs for managing these patients, as a first step toward the economic evaluation of suicide prevention measures.

Aims: This study examines (a) changes in emergency department-recorded suicide attempts, suicidal ideation and non-suicidal self-injury in youth, including repeat emergency department visits; and (b) related hospital costs for these patients, from a health insurer perspective.

Method: In this cross-sectional study, data from various sources was combined to identify all youth aged ≤27 years visiting a Dutch inner-city emergency department between 2016 and 2023 for a suicide attempt, suicidal ideation or non-suicidal self-injury. Hospital records were reviewed manually to determine inclusion. Ambiguities were discussed within an expert panel and descriptive analyses, Poisson regression and logistic regression analyses were performed. For a subset of 30 patients, invoiced costs were determined.

Results: The number of suicide attempts increased by approximately 5% annually, peaking in 2022 (n = 172); there were significantly more female patients (71%), and the median age was 21 years. Cases of suicidal ideation showed a similar trend, whereas the number of recorded non-suicidal self-injuries reduced. A total of 28.5% of all patients (n = 281) had one or multiple repeat visits for the above reasons. Median suicide attempt-related costs per case were €930, range €385-€33 473.

Conclusions: Since 2016, an increasing number of youth visited the emergency department of a Dutch hospital after a suicide attempt, but this increase does not seem to continue after 2022. Hospital-invoiced costs differ substantially between patients.