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NOSOCOMIAL SUICIDES AND SUICIDES AMONG DISCHARGED PATIENTS
Author(s) -
Jensen Leo
Publication year - 1966
Publication title -
acta psychiatrica scandinavica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.849
H-Index - 146
eISSN - 1600-0447
pISSN - 0001-690X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0447.1966.tb08800.x
Subject(s) - citation , medicine , psychiatry , library science , psychology , computer science
One of the most frequent problems which the psychiatrist must face, is to decide whether patients are potential suicides on account of their mental disorder. The decision is a matter of opinion and consequently, involves the risk of mistakes in spite of the utmost care. It is indeed a matter of experience that suicide has always occurred in the mental hospitals, even during periods when the most meticulous precautions were observed against suicide (wards organized in accordance with the surveillance system), locked doors and windows, removal of knives, scissors, forks, strings, and scarves etc. from the wards. During the last 20-30 years most of the previous precautions have been abolished. The majority of the wards are open, the patients use ordinary eating utensils, they have pocket mirrors, scissors, etc., and many of them have ground privileges. The doors of the bathrooms can be locked etc. Hence, it is only natural to examine whether this has increased the risk of suicide. Suicides are always committed in the mental hospitals, but is the incidence higher or lower than previously? This is a difficult question to answer, since the situation 25 years ago and a t present cannot be compared.