Followup of Neuropsychiatric Patients in Suicide Observation Status

• Published in: Public health reports (1896) Vol. 81; no. 11; pp. 977 - 990
• Main Authors: Sherman Eisenthal, Farberow, Norman L., Shneidman, Edwin S.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States United States Public Health Service 01.11.1966
• Subjects: Adult; Age; Aged; Attempted suicide; Behavior - classification; Ethnology; Female; Follow-Up Studies; Hospital administration; Hospitalization; Hospitals, Psychiatric; Humans; Male; Mental Disorders; Middle Aged; Patient medical history; Population studies; Psychiatric hospitals; Schizophrenia; Suicidal ideation; Suicide; Suicide - classification; United States; United States Department of Veterans Affairs; United States
• ISSN: 0094-6214; 2327-6258
• DOI: 10.2307/4592889

A followup study was conducted of 912 patients in a Veterans Administration neuropsychiatric hospital who had been placed in suicide observation status between 1954 and 1958. Complete followup data were obtained for 90 percent of the patients. Forty percent of these patients subsequently manifested further suicidal behavior; 6 percent committed suicide, 17 percent made nonlethal suicidal attempts, and 17 percent manifested suicidal ideation. Analysis of the patients' suicide histories, demographic information, and neuropsychiatric hospitalization data did not reveal any single pattern typifying the suicidal person. The success of the best predictors in forecasting suicide was from 8 to as high as 13 percent, while the best predictors of attempted suicide forecast the event with success ranging from 23 to as high as 29 percent. In this particular population, suicide is much more probable than in the neuropsychiatric hospital population or the general population.