SUICIDES IN PSYCHIATRIC-HOSPITALS

Suicide prevention is a traditionell duty of psychiatry and psychother apy. It is a well-known fact that patients in psychiatric hospitals ha ve always committed suicide under therapeutic conditions. Studies of o ur own research group in four psychiatric hospitals 1970 up to 1993 sh ow an increase of suicide numbers and rates with a peak around the eig hties and a plateau on a still higher level in the eighties and nineti es. Today suicide rates are around 150 to 300 suicides due to 100000 a dmissions per year. Compared to inpatients of a state mental hospital (n = 475), suicides (n = 585) are much more males, younger, and schizo phrenic inpatients as a new >>high-risk group<< with 53%.