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Suicide Risk Persists in Self-Harm Patients
The risk of suicide following deliberate self-harm (DSH) is significant and
persistent, researchers report in the British Journal of Psychiatry.
Keith Hawton (Warneford Hospital, Oxford, UK) and colleagues found that,
among DSH patients in the UK, the risk of suicide in the first year after
self-harm was 66 times higher than the annual risk of suicide in the general
population.
To investigate, the researchers assessed follow-up data recorded for 11,583
patients who presented to hospital after self-harm between 1978 and 1997. Data
were obtained from general hospital registers and the Office for National
Statistics.
By 2000, 300 (2.6%) patients had died by suicide or probable suicide, with
self-poisoning the most frequent method. The researchers note that, in the first
year, the risk of suicide was 0.7%, and was 1.7%, and 2.4%, and 3.0%, after 5,
10, and 15 years, respectively.
Suicide risk was far higher for men (4.8%) than for women (1.8%) for the
entirety of the follow-up period. In addition, the risk of suicide rose markedly
for both men and women with increasing age at the time of the first DSH episode.
"Reduction in the risk of suicide following DSH must be a key element in
national suicide prevention strategies," the researchers conclude. They add that
the increased risk in older people underlines the need for clinicians to be
especially vigilant for suicide risk in these patients.
Br J Psychiatry 2003; 182: 537-542
http://www.psychiatrymatters.md/news/2003/week_23/day_2/p_0000068636.asp
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