Bir ilçedeki psikiyatri polikliniğinin varlığının intiharlar üzerine etkileri

Objective: We aimed to determine whether having anewly served psychiatric outpatient clinic has a significanteffect in a district on has or not effect on suicides.Method: There had never been a psychiatrist in thedistrict hospital before September 2009, at which date theoutpatient psychiatry clinic opened and began acceptingpatients. We compared the frequency of suicides andrelated factors in the first year before and after opening ofpsychiatric outpatient clinic.Results: Of all suicides 115 (54%) and 98 (46%) wereadmitted within the first year before and after the openingof the psychiatry outpatient clinic, respectively whichwas statistically marginal significant (p=0.084). The age,gender, marital, educational and working status of thesuicide attempters were similar before and after openingof psychiatric outpatient clinic. Among the people whoattended to outpatient psychiatry clinic after the suicide,the repeated of suicide attempts were significantly higherthan the single suicide attempts (p= 0.036). 19.3% (n=41)of all suicide attempts attended to the outpatient psychiatryclinic both two years. 36% of these patients attended onlyonce, while 64% has attended regularly. Of the 41 totalsuicide attempters who attended the psychiatry outpatientclinic for suicide, 4 (9.8%) have repeated suicide attemptwithin a year after opening of outpatient psychiatry clinic.Conclusions: The presence of a psychiatry oupatient clinicmay a protective factor in terms of suicide attempts. Amultidisciplinary study team to prevent suicide attemptsis needed, as dictated by the multidimensional nature ofthe issue.