A Study on the Effect of the Depressive Disorder in Suicidal Attempt Aspect

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: The number of suicide attempts has increased in Korea. Depressive disorders are a major cause. This study investigated the clinical characteristics and outcomes of attempted suicide victims who had been admitted to the emergency department based on a psychiatric disorder. METHODS: We performed a retrospective analysis of 168 suicide attempters who visited the Chosun University hospital emergency medical center between June 1st, 2007 and May 31st, 2008. From chart reviews, we divided the victims into three groups by psychiatric histories, especially depressive disorder. We analyzed the effect of various factors including age, sex, previous suicide attempts outcome of suicide attempts. We used Pearson's chi-square test to chart the statistical data. RESULTS: Depressive patients had significantly more suicide attempts than other psychiatric patients and more than those who had no psychiatric history. Repeated attempts were also more frequent in depressive patients (64%). Sixty percent of depressive patients were admitted into our hospital or local clinic and eight percent of depressive suicide attempters died. Compared to other national statistics, there were fewer persons who consulted with a psychiatrist, but depressive patients had more interviews with psychiatrists (62.9%) than did the other groups. CONCLUSION: Even if the depressive disorder patient group shows a high recurrence rate, it also shows a high psychiatric interview acceptance rate and a relatively low rank on physical and psychiatric severity. Therefore, it is possible to prevent the recurrence of suicide attempts for the depressive group and to reduce the fatality rate. This can be done through on-going educational opportunities and psychiatric interviews. The rate of psychiatric consultations in Korea are significantly lower than in other countries. This situation requires more active psychiatric consultations and interviews later on.