Suicide and Parasuicide in Psychiatric Inpatients: Ten Years Experience at a General Hospital in Taiwan

Abstract

We investigated 64 suicidal acts of 62 psychiatric inpatients over a 10-yr.-period. The findings indicated the frequency of suicidal behavior of psychiatric inpatients was 0.91% of total admissions, two-thirds of the patients who attempted suicide were diagnosed with schizophrenia or depression, and patients suffering from depression, substance abuse, and personality disorders had a higher parasuicide rate, among whom those diagnosed bipolar disorder with depressive episode had an extremely high parasuicide rate. Most of the incidents occurred in concealed places, and most of the patients used nonviolent methods. About half of the incidents occurred during the evening shift, and depressed patients tended to attempt suicide during the night shift. Most suicidal attempts were unsuccessful and led to minor injury. There were two deaths.