Can suicide attempts be predicted? The results of the six-month prospective follow-up of patients who had attempted suicide and admitted to emergency service of a university hospital

Objective: We aimed to investigate the sociodemographic and clinical properties of suicide attempters and the risk factors associated with future attempts in this study. Methods: Total of 55 patients was recruited to current study. Forty three patients completed the follow-up period. Patients were contacted by phone and they were evaluated by a semi structured phone interview checking major depression criteria according to DSM-IV and they were asked whether they have attempted suicide and whether they are taking medication and psychiatric care. Results: The mean age and education of the sample was 29 +/- 11 years and 9 +/- 4 years respectively. Seventy five percent of suicide attempts were occurred after a life stress. Ninety eight percent of suicide attempts were self-poisoning. Eight patients (16.8%) repeated suicide attempt at least one more time during the six month follow-up period. The risk factor associated with repeated suicide attempts was presence of depression at the sixth month evaluation (p=0.01, odd's ratio: 12.39; 95% CI: 1.83-83.5). Discussion: The most important finding of this study is that depression is found to be associated with repeated suicide attempts at the end of six month follow-up period. To investigate risk factors associated with repeated suicide attempts with epidemiological studies is important for the development of both treatment and preventive health care services in Turkey. (Anatolian Journal of Psychiatry 2010; 11:1-8)