Risk Factors for Suicides of Inpatients With Depressive Psychoses

33 suicide victims & 3759 controls in a sample of patients with mono- or bipolar depression were compared with respect to 77 sociodemographic & anamnestic variables & 195 standardised items of the admission summary. The suicide rate of patients with depressive psychosis was 2.7 times higher than the average rate of 0.324% for the entire clinic. Suicidal tendencies on admission proved to be the best predictor with a frequency of 91% in the suicide group & 40% in the control group. Previous attempted suicide was the second best predictor. It is concluded the rate of inpatient suicide may have been underestimated in past decades due to methodological reasons. (52 refs.) JA