Analysis of Multiple Suicide Risk Factors of Psychiatric Inpatients by Severity Using the SAD PERSONS and Modifi ed SAD PERSONS Scale in Taiwan

Background: Suicide risk evaluation is a public health priority in Taiwan. In this preliminary study, we intended to do a correlation study between 13 individual items derived from the Modified SAD PERSONS scale and the SAD PERSONS scale relative to suicide among ethnic Chinese subjects. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed 210 inpatient medical records and classified patients' suicidal severity into three groups: (A) non-suicide group, (B) suicidal ideation group, and (C) attempted suicide group for analysis. Results: Seven items-age (p＜0.01), depression (p＜0.001), previous attempt (p＜0.001), rational thought loss (p＜0.001), organized plan (p＜0.001), stated future intent (p＜0.001), and current life stressor (p＜0.001) were significant, indicating that these seven risk factors are distinctly important among these groups. Further group-to-group relationships showed that the ＂the proportion of the suicidal ideation group or attempted suicide group was always significantly greater than that of the non-suicide group＂ in most factors, except those correlated to ＂age＂ and ＂rational thought loss＂ factors. Conclusion: Five factors-depression (p＜0.05), previous attempt (p＜0.01), organized plan (p＜0.01), stated future intent (p＜0.01), and current life stressor (p＜0.01) were significantly to be strongly associated with suicide in our study. Among the factors, ＂organized plan＂ and ＂previous attempt＂ were strongest significant predictors.