精神科 入院患者의 自殺에 對한 몇 가지 臨床的 考察

Some Clinical Observations on The Suicide of The Psychiatric Inpatients

The authors intended to know how often pati-ents completed suicide in a psychiatric hospital in our own counUy and what the characteristics of such patients were. It was found that 11 patients committed suicide in “K” public hospital during the period from 1971 to 1980. The mean number of inpatients was 416, and male to female ratio was 1.5 ： 1. Of the 11 patients who committed suicide, 10 were male and one was female. Ths suicide rats appeared higher than among the general population and was the second most common cause of death in this hospital. The highest incidence occurred in the age group of 31—35 years, which is lower than that of the general population. The highest rate of suicide occurred from the first to the third month of hospitalization, in spring and autumn, and during the night time. Of the 11 cases, 10 were diagnosed as schizophrenia and one as manic depressive (depressive phase). Hanging was the mode of suicide in 9 of the 11 cases, with 2 cases of jumping. The psychological charecteristics the patients showed before committing suicide were 1) selfdepreciatory idea and inferiority feeling, 2) persecutory delusion, 3) hopelessness and anhedonia and 4) hostility, and all patients had been depressed at least 5 days before their committing suicide. Nine patients were withdrawn and 5 of them suddenly became so four to seven days. before committing suicide. Only three psychiatrists gave precautions to the hospital staffs as to the patients’ possible suicide. We believe that the suicide of the hospitalized psychiatric patients will be reduced if we predict the high risk on the ground of above mentioned symptoms and signs of the patients, and if we make close observations on those patients.