Predictors of attempted suicide among Swiss patients with alcohol-use disorders

Buri, Caroline; von Bonin, Beatrice; Strik, Werner; Moggi, Franz (2009). Predictors of attempted suicide among Swiss patients with alcohol-use disorders. Journal of studies on alcohol and drugs, 70(5), pp. 668-74. Piscataway, N.J.: Alcohol Research Documentation, Inc.

Full text not available from this repository.

Objective: Suicide attempts are common in patients being treated for alcohol-use disorders (AUDs). However, clinical assessment of suicide risk is difficult. In this Swiss multisite study, we propose a decision tree to facilitate identification of profiles of AUD patients at high risk for suicidal behavior. Method: In this retrospective study, we used a sample of 700 patients (243 female), attending 1 of 12 treatment programs for AUDs in the German-speaking part of Switzerland. Sixty-nine patients who reported a suicide attempt in the 3 months before the index treatment were compared using risk factors with 631 patients without a suicide attempt. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analyses were used to identify patients at risk of having had a suicide attempt in the previous 3 months. Results: Consistent with previous empirical findings in AUD patients, a prior history of attempted suicide and severe symptoms of depression and aggression considerably increased the risk of a suicide attempt and, in combination, raised the likelihood of a prior suicide attempt to 52%. In addition, one third of AUD patients who had a history of suicide attempts and previous inpatient psychiatric treatment, or who were male and had previous inpatient psychiatric treatment, also reported a suicide attempt. Conclusions: The empirically supported decision tree helps to identify profiles of suicidal AUD patients in Switzerland and supplements clinicians' judgments in making triage decisions for suicide management.

Item Type:	Journal Article (Original Article)
Division/Institute:	04 Faculty of Medicine > University Psychiatric Services > University Hospital of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy > Management
UniBE Contributor:	Buri, Caroline, Strik, Werner, Moggi, Franz (A)
ISSN:	1937-1888
Publisher:	Alcohol Research Documentation, Inc.
Language:	English
Submitter:	Factscience Import
Date Deposited:	04 Oct 2013 15:12
Last Modified:	29 Mar 2023 23:33
PubMed ID:	19737490
Web of Science ID:	000269979800004
URI:	https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/31799 (FactScience: 196488)