Risk profiles for completed suicide among psychiatric patients

Summary

In Norway approximately 550 individuals die by suicide each year and the consequences to society are far reaching. Predicting suicide risk is demanding. Even in the presence of clear and well documented risk factors only a small proportion end their life to suicide. Mental disorders are one of the most consistent risk factors present in over 90 % of all suicides. In despite of this very little is known regarding what characterise those with mental disorders that end up taking their own life.  

In this research project we aim to link data from several large national registries such as the Norwegian cause of death registry, the Norwegian prescription database, the primary health care database, the Norwegian patient registry, the central population registry, the Norwegian welfare database, the national educational database and other sociodemographic data from statistics Norway in order to describe what characterise patients with mental disorders that end their life to suicide. The project aim to detect patterns of risk specific to different mental disorders that again could prove useful in suicide prevention work.