Effect of Psychopharmacotherapy on Suicide Risk in Discharged Psychiatric Inpatients

64 former psychiatric inpatients who had committed suicide within 1 year after their discharge were compared with a matched control group of patients who did not commit suicide. One-third of the patients in both groups were no longer in treatment at the time of the suicide or, for controls, at the corresponding point in time. At that time, a significantly higher proportion of controls had been receiving psychopharmacotherapy & a significantly higher proportion of them were on lithium. (21 refs.)