title: Self-inflicted burns: an eight year retrospective study in Finland.
abstract: The aim of this study was to investigate differences in characteristics of burn patients who had attempted suicide, as compared with other burn patients admitted to the Helsinki Burn Centre during 1989-97. Burn patients were first drawn from a computerised register, after which a psychiatrist examined their medical records and ascertained the suicide attempters. Of the total of 811 burn patients, 46 (5.7%) had attempted suicide. The median total body surface area (TBSA) of suicide attempters (24.0%) was markedly higher than in the other patients (6.0%, P < 0.001). Flame was a much more common cause of burns among suicide attempters (82.1%) than among the remainder (44.5%, P < 0.001). Suicide attempters were also more often unemployed (28.2 versus 12.9%) or on disability pension (30.8 versus 7.1%) before the injury (P < 0.001). Although the proportion with self-inflicted burns among all burn patients was not high, the markedly higher severity of their burns makes them an important clinical subgroup for further study.
authors.affiliation: Helsinki City Eastern Centre, Department of Mental Health, Helsinki, Finland. raimo.palmu@hel.fi
authors.forename: Raimo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Palmu
authors.forename: Erkki
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Isometsä
authors.forename: Kirsi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Suominen
authors.forename: Jyrki
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Vuola
authors.forename: Antero
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Leppävuori
authors.forename: Jouko
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lönnqvist
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002056:Burns / Q000209:etiology / Q000473:pathology / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D013406:Suicide, Attempted; D015599:Trauma Severity Indices; D014478:Unemployment / Q000523:psychology