Suicide risk increases in people hospitalized for a mental health problem – Health & Medicine

2024-09-20 00:08:07

In women hospitalized for a mental disorder, the risk of suicide is 48 times higher than in the general female population. In men in the same situation the risk is 28 times greater, according to a study by the Research Institute published in JAMA Network Open

The risk of premature mortality, that is, dying before the age of 70, is also higher in people hospitalized for a mental disorder. This group has almost eight times the risk of mortality compared to the rest of the population.

Las women who have been hospitalized for a mental disorder Have 48 times higher risk of death by suicide compared to women in the general population. In the case of men the risk is 28 times greateras revealed by a study by the Health Services Research Group of the Hospital del Mar Research Institute published in the journal Open JAMA Network. In relation to premature mortality, that which occurs for various reasons before the age of 70, l the risk is 7.5 times higher in men and 7.7 times higher in women. Data that leads researchers to highlight the need to improve the healthcare processes of people hospitalized for mental health problems once discharged from hospital centers.

The work was based on data from almost 50,000 people hospitalized for a mental health disorder between the years 2014 and 2018, consulted through the Data Analysis Program for Health Research and Innovation (PADRIS) of the Agència de Qualitat i Avaluació Sanitàries de Catalunya (AQuAS) and in the data of National Institute of Statistics (INE). 53% were men and the average age at hospital discharge was 44 years. Of the total, 2,260 people, 4.6%, died prematurely during the follow-up, carried out until the end of 2019, 437, 1%, died by suicide, and 4,752, almost 10%, suffered an unrelated episode of self-conflict. harm. One in four people had already had a previous psychiatric hospitalization in the six years preceding the period studied.

These data lead Jordi Alonso, coordinator of the Health Services Group of the Hospital del Mar Research Institute, to underline that “Although the absolute number of suicides is small, only 1% of the total, the magnitude we observed suggests that suicide is one way in which the high mortality in people with mental disorders is expressed”.

Differences between men and women
The most widespread disorders in the population analyzed are schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders, disorders related to drug and alcohol use, depression and personality disorders. But the study reveals differences between men and women in relation to suicide risk after discharge from hospital. The researchers point out that the proportionately higher risk of suicide among women, compared to the general female population, may be due to two simultaneous factors, a greater demand for health care by women and an underdiagnosis of depression in men. In them, it was higher in cases of hospital admissions bipolar disorder and depressionwhile in them it was in the cases of adaptive disordersthat is, those caused by stressful situations external to the person, and by depression. In both groups there is a relationship with non-fatal self-harm after hospital discharge. The fact that there are more suicide deaths among women contrasts with the situation in the general population, where they occur more among men. In relation to this fact, Dr. Alonso adds this “it will be necessary to take into account that in women the risk of suicide is higher in the population who has undergone hospitalization for a psychiatric disorder when defining prevention strategies and personalized treatments”.

Víctor Pérez, signatory of the work and director of the Psychiatry Service of the Hospital del Mar, underlines the importance of the study. “Mental illness is a major risk factor for suicidal behavior; 90% of people who commit suicide had a diagnosis of mental illness. This risk increases when the disease is serious and requires hospitalization.”he adds.

In relation to premature mortality, the most common disorders, both in men and women, were cognitive disorders6.3%, as dementia or delirium, e alcohol use disordergreater than 24% of the total population studied. A fact that leads the first author of the article, the researcher at the Hospital del Mar, Philippe Mortier, to underline it “We need to think about preventative interventions to avoid deaths resulting from alcohol consumption in this population”. In this sense it is engaged in the development of tools with machine learning and artificial intelligence that allow the creation of personalized predictive models.

For all this, Mortier defends him “Mental health services need to be integrated with clinicians. “A multidisciplinary approach is needed in this population, which goes beyond mental health care.”. In this sense, he adds, the study suggests it “Individuals discharged from psychiatric hospitalization are a population vulnerable to premature death and suicidal risk behavior”. MTT/LDB (SyM)