Psychiatric Hospitalization for Attempted Suicide and Reattempt at the One-Year Follow-Up

Abstract

Background: People hospitalized for suicide attempt (SA) have a high risk of repeating and committing suicide during the first months after discharge. The aim of this study is to compare the usual treatment (TAU) with a TAU supplemented with a telephone follow-up programme (TAU + T). Method: multicentre, open-trial, ex post facto prepost prospective study that compared two samples of 90 (TAU) and 101 (TAU + T) people admitted in 2018-2019 for attempted suicide in two psychiatry units after one-year follow-up. Repeated SAs were analysed. Results: A total of 31.4% (n=60) of the sample attempted suicide at least once during follow-up, with no differences between the units. A total of 32.5% (n=62) were readmitted during the following year, 15.6% of those readmissions were due to new suicide attempts. In TAU, the highest proportion of reattempts was among those diagnosed with personality disorders (77.8%) vs. other diagnoses (28.4%). In TAU + T, the highest proportion was found among those with previous SAs (50%) vs. those admitted for the first SA (4.4%). Conclusions: people admitted to psychiatric units for a first SA seem to benefit from TAU + T as it was associated with a lower recurrence of SA after discharge.