Psychiatric Aftercare and Suicide Risk: a Case-Control Study Using Blind Rating

Blindly abstracted records of last episode of care together with aftercare records of 39 psychiatric patient suicides & their matched controls were rated blind for suicidal talk during aftercare, reduction of aftercare at last appointment & high-low suicide risk. Neither suicidal talk nor reduction of aftercare was confirmed as a predictor of suicide, although trends in the predicted directions were observed. Blind estimates of high-low risk correctly identified a significant minority of suicides but at the cost of misclassifying 60% as controls. Some implications for practice & research are discussed. (13 refs.)