A Comparison of Patients Presenting with Suicide Attempts, Psychopathology Symptoms, or Pain within Emergency Departments

Abstract

Previous suicide attempts, psychopathology symptoms, and pain significantly increase risk of suicide, a leading cause of death. It is possible that patients across these three groups exhibit key differences that could provide insights into unique interventions for suicide-related outcomes. Data were collected using a standardized form at 432 emergency departments (EDs; 14,018 participants [females, n = 8,042; 57.4%; males, n = 5,976; 42.6%]). We conducted a series of ANOVAs to investigate if patients presenting for (1) suicide attempts (n = 33; 0.2%), (2) psychopathology symptoms (n = 1,104; 7.9%), or (3) pain (n = 12,881; 91.9%) varied across a variety of healthcare-relevant variables. Findings indicated that patients presenting with suicide attempts were seen with more urgency (F[2,12054] = 66.41, p < .001) and were more likely to be admitted to hospitalization (F[2,14015] = 187.296, p < .001), observation unit overall (F[2,14015] = 78.572, p < .001), or transferred to another hospital (F[2,14015] = 406.568, p < .001); they also required longer visits (F [2, 12054] = 66.41, p < .001) as compared to patients with psychopathology symptoms or pain. Notably, potentially important similarities between groups emerged: groups did not differ across leaving without medical screening, leaving against medical advice, or contact with healthcare providers in the long-term (i.e., twelve months) or short-term (i.e., 72 hours) preceding ED admission. These findings in particular indicate that there could be ample time (1) prior to admission to intervene and (2) during care in EDs to connect patients to goal-oriented, time-limited evidence based psychotherapies at a time when they may be particularly willing to engage in care.

Keywords:

• pain
• psychological symptoms
• suicide attempts

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

Any opinions, findings, interpretations, conclusions and recommendations are those of the authors and are not necessarily endorsed by the Military Suicide Research Consortium or the U.S. Department of Defense.

Additional information

Funding

This material is based upon work supported by the Military Suicide Research Consortium (MSRC), an effort supported by the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs under Award No. W81XWH-16-2-0003.

Notes on contributors

Katherine M. Schafer

Katherine M. Schafer, PhD and Thomas E. Joiner, PhD, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida, USA.

Thomas E. Joiner

Katherine M. Schafer, PhD and Thomas E. Joiner, PhD, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida, USA.