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Suicide by a psychiatric inpatient seems especially shocking and tragic, as it may be more preventable than other suicides. These investigators examined factors associated with suicide among a nationally representative sample of psychiatric inpatients in England.
Cases were psychiatric inpatients (age range, 16–65) who had died by suicide from April 1999 through December 2000. For each case, researchers identified a control patient who was in a hospital on the suicide date. The treating clinicians completed questionnaires about the 222 cases and 222 controls.
Of those who died by suicide, 62% were male. The most common methods were hanging and jumping from a height or in front of a vehicle. The most common diagnoses were affective disorder an…