title: Suicide among psychiatric patients: a case-control study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To examine patient- and treatment-based differences between psychiatric patients who do and do not die by suicide.
  
  
  METHODS
  By linking databases of deaths and psychiatric service use in Victoria, we compared 597 cases who suicided over 5 years with individually matched controls.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Cases and controls could not be distinguished on the majority of patient- or treatment-based characteristics. The exceptions were that cases were more likely to be male, less likely to be outside the labour force, more likely to have recent contact with inpatient and community services, and more likely to have a registration as their last contact.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Patients who suicide 'look' similar to those who do not, suggesting prevention approaches should ensure that all psychiatric patients receive optimal care, including appropriate detection, diagnosis, assessment and treatment of mental health problems, and careful, individualised assessment of suicide risk.
authors.affiliation: Program Evaluation Unit, Centre for Health Program Evaluation, School of Population Health, The University of Melbourne, P O box 477, West Heidelberg, and Mental Health Research Institute, Victoria, Australia.
authors.forename: Jane
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Pirkis
authors.forename: Philip
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Burgess
authors.forename: Damien
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Jolley
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002423:Cause of Death; D002648:Child; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000401:mortality* / Q000628:therapy; D008605:Mental Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008875:Middle Aged; D016017:Odds Ratio; D018570:Risk Assessment; D013405:Suicide / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014739:Victoria / Q000453:epidemiology; D000092864:Suicide Prevention