[The future of suicidal patients admitted to a general hospital. Comparative study of 2 methods of prevention recurrence and of suicides]

Abstract

This is a comparative study of two groups of suicide attempters admitted in a general hospital, who were treated in different ways. The 143 attempters of the "systematically treated group (STG)" were proposed the classical therapeutic measures (supportive psychotherapy, psychiatric hospitalization, crisis interventions within couples or families, mixed interventions with the above treatments, psychoanalytically oriented psychotherapy, etc.), plus ambulatory controls (a few days after discharge from the general hospital, after one month, three months, six months, a year, and two years). The 145 attempters of the "reference group (RG)" were proposed the classical measures only. All the attempters of both groups had a follow-up after two years. The results suggest the controls to be probably responsible for the difference of relapses and committed suicides between the two groups. More indirectly, this study facilitated a further analysis of the relational problems between suicide attempters and staff, and among staff members themselves. The consequences were a modification of some attitudes of the staff toward the attempters and their significant others, and a new collaboration for an interdisciplinary clinical research.