Objective: We aimed to determine whether having a newly served psychiatric outpatient clinic has a significant effect in a district on has or not effect on suicides.
Method: There had never been a psychiatrist in the district hospital before September 2009, at which date the outpatient psychiatry clinic opened and began accepting patients. We compared the frequency of suicides and related factors in the first year before and after opening of psychiatric outpatient clinic.
Results: Of all suicides 115 (54%) and 98 (46%) were admitted within the first year before and after the opening of the psychiatry outpatient clinic, respectively which was statistically marginal significant (p=0.084). The age, gender, marital, educational and working status of the suicide attempters were similar before and after opening of psychiatric outpatient clinic. Among the people who attended to outpatient psychiatry clinic after the suicide, the repeated of suicide attempts were significantly higher than the single suicide attempts (p= 0.036). 19.3% (n=41) of all suicide attempts attended to the outpatient psychiatry clinic both two years. 36% of these patients attended only once, while 64% has attended regularly. Of the 41 total suicide attempters who attended the psychiatry outpatient clinic for suicide, 4 (9.8%) have repeated suicide attempt within a year after opening of outpatient psychiatry clinic.
Conclusions: The presence of a psychiatry oupatient clinic may a protective factor in terms of suicide attempts. A multidisciplinary study team to prevent suicide attempts is needed, as dictated by the multidimensional nature of the issue.
Key words: suicide, psychiatry, psychiatrist, outpatient psychiatry clinic
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