Suicide and suicide attempts in adults: exploring suicide risk 24 months after a psychiatric emergency room visit

Objective: Suicide risk (including attempted and completed suicide) should be measured over short periods of time after contacting health services. The objective of this study was to identify the patterns of attempted and completed suicides within 24-months of a psychiatric emergency department visit, as well as to investigate predictive risk factors, including sociodemographic and clinical variables, previous suicidal behavior, and service utilization. Method: A convenience sample (n=147), recruited at a general hospital's psychiatric emergency room, included patients with suicidal ideation, suicidal plans or previous suicide attempts. These patients were followed for 24 months, focusing on two main outcomes: attempted and completed suicides. Results: After six months there were no completed suicides and 36 suicide attempts, while after 24 months there were seven completed suicides and 69 suicide attempts. A final logistic regression model for suicide attempts at 24 months identified somatic pathology and the number of previous psychiatric hospitalizations as predictive factors, with a good area under the receiver operating characteristic curve. Conclusions: The findings showed distinct patterns of attempted and completed suicides over time, indicating the importance of a systematic multidisciplinary suicide risk evaluation in psychiatric emergency rooms.

End of life in the neonatal intensive care unit

PURPOSE: Death at the beginning of life is tragic but not uncommon in neonatal intensive care units. In Portugal, few studies have examined the circumstances surrounding the final moments of neonates. We evaluated the care given to neonates and their families in terminal situations and the changes that had occurred one decade later. DESIGN AND METHODS: We analyzed 256 charts in a retrospective chart review of neonatal deaths between two periods (1992-1995 and 2002-2005) in a level III neonatal intensive care unit. RESULTS: Our results show differences in the care of dying infants between the two periods. The analysis of the 2002-2005 cohort four years revealed more withholding and withdrawing of therapeutic activities and more effective pain and distress relief; however, on the final day of life, 95.7 percent of the infants received invasive ventilatory support, 76.3 percent received antibiotics, 58.1 percent received inotropics, and 25.8 percent received no opioid or sedative administration. The 2002-2005 cohort had more spiritual advisor solicitation, a higher number of relatives with permission to freely visit and more clinical meetings with neonatologists. Interventions by parents, healthcare providers and ethics committees during decision-making were not documented in any of the charts. Only eight written orders regarding therapeutic limitations and the adoption of palliative care were documented; seven (87.5 percent) were from the 2002-2005 cohort. Parental presence during death was more frequent in the latter four years (2002-2005 cohort), but only 21.5 percent of the parents wanted to be present at that moment. CONCLUSION: Despite an increase in the withholding and withdrawing of therapeutic activities and improvements in pain management and family support, many neonates still receive curative and aggressive practices at the end of life.