Abstract

In this paper, results are shown of a study on suicides committed by psychiatric inpatients in four state mental hospitals in Baden-Württemberg, Federal Republic of Germany during the 15 years from January 1, 1970 up to the end of 1984. There was a mean suicide rate of 195 per 100,000 admissions. A comparison of 5-year sequences showed a significant increase of so-called hospital suicides in two of the hospitals at the end of the seventies and the beginning of the eighties. A statistical analysis of a trend of increase using nonparametric methods (Spearman rho, Kendall tau) showed a significant increase in the number of suicides and suicide rates in all four hospitals. In a second step, the same statistical procedure testing for an increase in the fifteen years was used for the group of schizophrenic (N = 106) and depressed (N = 55) inpatients who committed suicide. An impressive and highly significant increase was found especially in schizophrenic male inpatients with the ICD-9 diagnosis 295.3 (paranoid-schizophrenia), and within that group, in inpatients with 3 or more inpatient treatments. There was also an increase in the depressed group, especially in female depressives, but only significant at the 5% level in the trend analysis.