Suicide and attempt rates are greatly elevated among patients after discharge from psychiatric hospitalization—especially during the first year after discharge, concludes a research review in the July/August issue of Harvard Review of Psychiatry. The journal is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer.

Rates of suicide and attempts soon after hospital discharge are far higher than in the general population, and even higher than in clinical samples of patients with similar psychiatric disorders. "[The] findings underscore the need for improved monitoring and care of patients discharged from psychiatric hospitalization," according to the new report.

The study authors were Alberto Forte, MD, Andrea Buscajoni, MD, and Maurizio Pompili, MD, PhD, of Sapienza University of Rome, Italy; Andrea Fiorillo, MD, PhD, of University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli, Naples; and Ross J. Baldessarini, MD, director of the International Consortium for Bipolar & Psychotic Disorders Research of the Mailman Research Center at McLean Hospital in Belmont, MA.

Better follow-up needed to prevent suicide after psychiatric discharge