Background: Suicide prevention is a health service priority. Suicide risk may be greatest during psychiatric in-patient admission and following discharge.
Aims: To describe the social and clinical characteristics of a comprehensive sample of in-patient and post-discharge cases of suicide.
Method: A national clinical survey based on a 4-year (1996-2000) sample of cases of suicide in England and Wales who had been in recent contact with mental health services (n=4859).
Results: There were 754 (16%) current in-patients and a further 1100 (23%) had been discharged from psychiatric in-patient care less than 3 months before death. Nearly a quarter of the in-patient deaths occurred within the first 7 days of admission; 236 (31%) occurred on the ward, the majority by hanging. Post-discharge suicide was most frequent in the first 2 weeks after leaving hospital; the highest number occurred on the first day.
Conclusions: Suicide might be prevented among in-patients by improving ward design and removing fixtures that can be used in hanging. Prevention of suicide after discharge requires early community follow-up and closer supervision of high-risk patients.