Psychiatric inpatients have high risk for suicide after hospital discharge (and for 3 months after)

A warning to everyone…

Individuals with mental health disorders had increased risk for suicide 3 months after discharge from a psychiatric hospital, particularly those who did not receive outpatient health care 6 months before hospital admission.

“The period immediately after psychiatric hospital discharge poses an exceptionally high risk for suicide. Although only about 6% of mental health outpatients receive psychiatric inpatient care each year, approximately one-third of all suicides among patients with mental disorders occur within 3 months of discharge from an inpatient psychiatric unit,” Mark Olfson, MD, MPH, of New York State Psychiatric Institute, Columbia University, New York, and colleagues wrote. “Knowledge of which mental disorders and other readily identifiable patient characteristics put adults at highest short-term risk for suicide after psychiatric hospital discharge might shed light on the mechanisms of acute risk for suicide and guide interventions to prevent suicide.”

To assess risk for suicide 90 days after psychiatric hospital discharge among individuals diagnosed with mental disorders, researchers evaluated a national retrospective longitudinal cohort of inpatients in the Medicaid program who were discharged with a first-listed diagnosis of depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, substance use disorder and other mental disorder (n = 770,643). Analysis also included a 10% random sample of inpatient adults diagnosed with nonmental disorders (n = 1,090,551). Study participants had a mean age of 35.4 years.

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Just got an email on this - while its focused on bipolar disorder, it seems that the suicide prevention strategies would likely be very similar for people who have schizophrenia:

Preventing Suicide Among Persons With Bipolar Disorder

This webinar, presented by Dr. Richard McKeon, discusses preventing suicide among persons with bipolar disorder and highlights SAMHSA’s resources for suicide prevention and how they can be accessed.