"Psychiatric Visits for Self-Harm Patients Reduce Suicide Death Risk"

Before and After Intentional Self-Harm Attempts
Survival Rate 93% When Receiving Psychiatric Treatment

A study has found that patients with a history of intentional self-harm who visit a psychiatric department for diagnosis have a reduced risk of suicide. This means that active treatment can help prevent suicide risk.

Dr. Kim Hye-hyun, Lecturer Ko Chan-young, and Professor Park Yu-rang from the Department of Biomedical Systems Informatics at Yonsei University College of Medicine announced on the 16th that among patients who attempted suicide but survived, the 'suicide survival rate' was 93.4% when intentional self-harm patients received psychiatric care before or after self-harm, reducing the risk of suicide death by more than 10% compared to those who did not receive psychiatric diagnosis.

The research team analyzed the relationship between psychiatric visits and death by suicide among 5,640 individuals who had visited a hospital for intentional self-harm from 2002 to 2020 using the National Health Insurance Service database. The team divided the subjects into three groups and conducted analysis using a Cox regression model, a type of survival analysis. Among the 5,640 patients, 3,821 had received psychiatric diagnosis before intentional self-harm, 755 received psychiatric diagnosis after self-harm, and the remaining 1,064 patients did not receive any psychiatric diagnosis or treatment.

The analysis showed that the group without any psychiatric diagnosis or treatment had the lowest suicide survival rate at 81.5%, and the highest fatal self-harm rate at 56.4%. In contrast, the group that visited psychiatry for diagnosis and treatment after the self-harm incident had the highest suicide survival rate at 97.7%. The group diagnosed with psychiatry before the self-harm incident also had a relatively high suicide survival rate of 89.1%. In other words, patients who received psychiatric diagnosis and treatment before or after intentional self-harm had a suicide survival rate of 93.4%, which was more than 10% higher in survival compared to those who did not visit psychiatry.

Professor Park Yu-rang stated, "We confirmed that there is a significant difference in mortality rates among patients who intentionally self-harmed depending on whether they had a history of psychiatric diagnosis and treatment." He added, "We expect that these research results can help in establishing suicide prevention strategies." The study was published in the latest issue of the international journal JMIR Public Health and Surveillance (IF 14.557).

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