Monday, July 3, 2017

JAMA Studies Suicide Rates in Discharged Psychiatric Patients


Holding an MD, a PhD, and an MSW, Dr. Patricia Lynn Hough has served in a variety of roles that have allowed her to help patients in a wide range of settings. From 2009 to 2013, Dr. Patricia Lynn Hough served with the Sarasota County Department of Health, providing psychiatric care to patients who had no insurance coverage.

According to a recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association Psychiatry, patients discharged from psychiatric facilities have a much higher suicide rate. Researchers pooled data across five decades for the study, which found that recently discharged patients were 100 times more likely to commit suicide within 3 months of being discharged.

Further, the study suggests that patients who reported having suicidal thoughts upon being admitted to the facility had an even higher suicide rate, which was nearly 200 times the normal population rate. Over the 50 years that researchers studied, this rate did not decrease. Based on this data, the study authors say that strong efforts should be focused on addressing this increased suicide risk.

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