2.40 Method of failed suicide may predict successful attempt
According to Swedish researchers who studied almost 49,000 people admitted to the hospital for attempted suicide, “intensified aftercare is warranted” after hospitalization following certain methods of attempted suicide. People who had tried to kill themselves by hanging, strangulation or suffocation were at the highest risk of later completed suicide, even after controlling for sociodemographic factors and co-occurring psychiatric disorders. The research was published in the July 14 online edition of BMJ. In an editorial accompanying the article, suicide researcher Keith Hawton notes that it’s important to remember that “although use of more lethal methods of self-harm is an important index of suicide risk, it should not obscure the fact that self-harm in general is a key indicator of an increased risk of suicide.”
Read the full text of the article “Method of attempted suicide as predictor of subsequent successful suicide: National long term cohort study” http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/abstract/341/jul13_1/c3222