Contacts to the Health Care System Prior to Suicide: a Comprehensive Analysis Using Registers for General and Psychiatric Hospital Admissions, Contacts to General Practitioners and Practising Specialists and Drug Prescriptions

This study investigated suicides’ contacts with various parts of the health care system. Data on 472 people who completed suicide in a Danish country in the period April 1991-December 1995 were searched in the Danish Psychiatric Central Register, the National Patient Register, the National Health Insurance, & Odense Pharmacoepidemiologic Database. 97.5% of the subjects were recaptured in at least 1 of these regisers. 42% had been hospitalized in psychiatric departments. Within the last month before death, 66% consulted a general practitioner, 13% & 7% respectively, were discharged from a psychiatric hospital & general hospital. (19 refs.)