Followup of Neuropsychiatric Patients in Suicide Observation Status

FOLLOWUP STUDIES of persons pre¬ viously hospitalized for suicidal attempts have shown that this group exhibits a subse¬ quently higher incidence of suicide than occurs in a neuropsychiatric hospital population or in the general population.For example, for every 100 persons who had previously at¬ tempted suicide, 1 to 4 suicides were reported (1-3); for every 1,000 neuropsychiatric pa¬ tients, there were 1 to 3 suicides (h 5); and for every 10,000 people in the general population, 1 suicide was reported (6).In the absence of clear-cut causes and effects for so infrequent an event as suicide, one strategy is to locate sub- populations in which the event is most probable.Such populations can then be studied for dis- tinctive personality attributes or distinctive an- tecedent stress situations which may yield identifying and predictive clues.The identifi¬ cation of a population with high suicidal risk is obviously of great prevention value in public