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Cited by 380Suicide and Self-Harm StudiesPsychiatric care and mental health servicesHomicide, Infanticide, and Child Abuse

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 25 of the 25 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

Suicide after discharge from psychiatric inpatient care

Goldacre, M, Seagroatt, V, Hawton, K·1993·The Lancet
DOI 10.1016/0140-6736(93)91822-4
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Abstract

People with a history of psychiatric disorder are at higher risk of suicide than people without such a history. The policy of reducing inpatient care in psychiatry has probably meant that some of the risk of suicide has shifted from the hospital to the community setting. We have quantified the risk of suicide within a year of psychiatric discharge in a population-based study in the Oxford health region, UK. We calculated suicide rates per 1000 person-years at risk (time from discharge to death, subsequent readmission, or the end of the study) and the standardised mortality ratio (SMR) for suicide, taking the value among the general population as 1. Among male patients the SMR for suicide (defined by coroner's verdict of suicide) in the first 28 days after discharge from inpatient care was 213 (95% CI 137-317); the equivalent SMR for female patients was 134 (67-240). The result was similar when we defined suicide more broadly as a suicide, open, or misadventure verdict. The suicide rate in the first 28 days after discharge was 7.1 (4.1-12) times higher for male patients and 3.0 (1.5-6.0) times higher for female patients than the rate during the remaining 48 weeks of the first year after discharge. Most of the patients studied (both those who committed suicide and those who did not) had been psychiatric inpatients for only a short time. The findings confirm that there is significant clustering of suicide soon after discharge from psychiatric care. Skilled support after discharge for high-risk patients in the community is essential. Audit of suicides that occur soon after discharge may help identify the patients at highest risk and thereby reduce the number of avoidable deaths.

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Crossref · 10.1016/0140-6736(93)91822-4

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25 of 25 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

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  • Suicide risk is particularly high when patients are discharged from psychiatric hospitals where the average length of stay is between 5 and 7 days.

    “the suicide risk is particularly high when the patients were discharged from psychiatric hospitals where the average LOS is between 5 to 7 days (Appleby et al., 1999; Goldacre et al., 1993).”

    From Time in treatment: Examining mental illness trajectories across inpatient psychiatric treatment (2020) · cites this paper as Goldacre et al., 1993

  • Patients who are psychiatrically hospitalized for a suicide attempt or suicidal ideation are at very high risk for suicide following discharge, with rates of suicide shortly postdischarge more than 100 times greater than the rate in the general population.

    “Patients who are psychiatrically hospitalized for a suicide attempt or suicidal ideation (SI) are at very high risk for suicide following discharge [1 -3], with rates of suicide shortly postdischarge more than 100 times greater than the rate in the general population [4].”

    From Feasibility and utility of positive psychology exercises for suicidal inpatients (2014) · cites this paper as [3]

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Metadata

Authors
Goldacre, M., Seagroatt, V, & Hawton, K.
Affiliations
  • University of Oxford (GB)
  • Warneford Hospital (GB)
ORCID
Venue
The Lancet
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
1993-07
Volume
342
Issue
8866
Pages
283-286
ISSN
  • 0099-5355 (ISSN-L)
  • 0140-6736
DOI
10.1016/0140-6736(93)91822-4
OpenAlex
W1974637624
Cited by
380
References
25
Citations by year
2026: 2 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 11 · 2020: 15 · 2019: 12 · 2018: 11 · 2017: 15 · 2016: 20 · 2015: 16 · 2014: 15 · 2013: 19 · 2012: 20
FWCI
12.67
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
www.elsevier.com/tdm/userlicense/1.0/ (tdm)
Locations
  • The Lancet (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Suicide and Self-Harm Studies
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychiatric care and mental health services
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Homicide, Infanticide, and Child Abuse
Keywords
suicide, psychiatric hospital discharge, suicide rates, standardized mortality ratio, gender differences in suicide, community mental health support
MeSH terms
Adolescent, Adult, Aged, Mental Disorders, England, Female, Hospitals, Psychiatric, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Outpatients, Patient Discharge, Risk Factors, Sex Factors, Suicide, Time Factors

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