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The risk for suicide is increased shortly after discharge from psychiatric hospital, but predicting exactly who is at risk is difficult. Deriving a mathematical algorithm from 38 databases covering 53,769 hospitalizations of 40,820 soldiers between 2004 and 2009, this U.S. Army group examined the risk for suicide within 1 year of hospital discharge (N=68 suicides).
The normalized rates of suicide were 264/100,000 person-years within 12 months of hospitalization, versus 18/100,000 in the overall Army population. Factors associated with a heightened risk for suicide included male sex, criminal offenses, past suicide attempts or ideation, nonaffective psychosis, dissociative disorder, and hearing loss. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) did …