[Psychotherapeutic and psychopharmacological treatment of suicidal depressive patients]

Abstract

Depressive patients in a high-risk-group due to suicidal behavior and death by suicide. Suicide rates amount to 500 to 900 per 100,000 depressives. According to the literature mortality reaches 15% in all primary depressive patients. Of our own depressive inpatients 20% were admitted because of tentamen. About 29% of our depressive inpatients have attempted ed suicide in former history. Among suicides during psychiatric hospital treatment were significantly more patients with depression than among the entire hospital clientele and inpatients with affective psychoses especially with delusional depression were overrepresented. Hopelessness, higher scores in depression scales, feelings of guilt and worthlessness, delusions seem to differentiate between depressives with and without suicidal behavior. Treatment of these patients means psychotherapeutic measures which can be described in terms of crisis intervention, brief psychotherapy, and antidepressive medication as a treatment of the underlying depression, sometimes in combination with neuroleptics or/and tranquilizers.