Comparison of the clinical features of suicide attempters by jumping from a height and those by self-stabbing in Japan

Background

A history of psychiatric disorders is a high risk for suicide. The present study compared the clinical features of psychiatric patients in Japan who attempted suicide by jumping from a height and those who attempted suicide by self-stabbing.

Methods

We compared two groups of suicide attempters who were hospitalized for both physical and psychiatric treatment (n=202). We compared the psychiatric diagnoses and clinical features between those who attempted suicide by jumping from a height (N=147) and those who did so by self-stabbing (N=55).

Results

The self-stabbing group (mean age 52.3 years) was significantly older compared to the jumping group (mean age 37.9 years). A significantly higher proportion of females were found in the jumping group. Jumping from a height was significantly associated with schizophrenia spectrum disorders, whereas self-stabbing was significantly associated with mood disorders.

Limitations

The results were drawn from data from a single hospital in a large urban city, and the study population did not include subjects who completed their suicide attempts.

Conclusions

Our findings show that differences in suicide methods (here, between jumping from a height and self-stabbing) may be related to suicide attempters' psychiatric diagnosis, gender and age. It is thus important to obtain a more detailed background information about a patient's suicide attempt and to create suicide prevention plans in accord with individuals' psychiatric diagnosis, age and gender, especially among those who have attempted suicide by jumping from a height or self-stabbing.