Association of the COVID-19 Pandemic and Low-rescue Suicide Attempts in Patients Visiting the Emergency Department after Attempting Suicide.
J Korean Med Sci
; 36(34): e243, 2021 Aug 30.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1379957
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic may increase the total number of suicide attempts and the proportion of low-rescue attempts. We investigated the factors affecting low-rescue suicide attempts using the risk-rescue rating scale (RRRS) among patients who visited the emergency department (ED) after attempting suicide before or during the COVID-19 pandemic.METHODS:
We retrospectively investigated suicide attempts made by patients who visited our ED from March 2019 to September 2020. Patients were classified into two groups based on whether they attempted suicide before or during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data on demographic variables, psychiatric factors, suicide risk factors and rescue factors were collected and compared.RESULTS:
A total of 518 patients were included in the study, 275 (53.1%) of whom attempted suicide during the COVID-19 pandemic. The proportion of patients who made low-rescue suicide attempts differed before and during the COVID-19 pandemic (37.1% vs. 28.8%) (P = 0.046). However, the proportions of patients who made high-risk suicide attempts and high-lethality suicide attempts did not significantly differ between the two periods. The independent risk factors for low-rescue suicide attempts were age and the COVID-19 pandemic (odds ratio [OR], 1.02; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.00-1.03; P = 0.006) (OR, 1.52; 95% CI, 1.03-2.25; P = 0.034).CONCLUSION:
The COVID-19 pandemic was associated with low-rescue suicide attempts in patients visiting the ED after attempting suicide. Thus, we need to consider the implementation of measures to prevent low-rescue suicide attempts during similar infectious disease crises.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Suicide, Attempted
/
Failure to Rescue, Health Care
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Experimental Studies
/
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
/
Randomized controlled trials
Limits:
Adolescent
/
Adult
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
/
Middle aged
/
Young adult
Country/Region as subject:
Asia
Language:
English
Journal:
J Korean Med Sci
Journal subject:
Medicine
Year:
2021
Document Type:
Article
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