The characteristics of the suicide attempters taken to the emergency room of Wakayama Medical University Hospital and a proposal of an intervention for overdose medication

In order to propose clinical intervention for suicide prevention, we examined the suicide attempters taken to the emergency room of Wakayama Medical University Hospital from July 2010 to March 2011. The total number of suicide attempters was 76, and 71% of them had overdosed. The number of repeating suicide attempters (5 or more times) was 18, and 83% of them had overdosed. Five attempters were pronounced dead by the time they arrived at the emergency room, and 4 of them had a history of overdose medication. Three of them were confirmed to have overdosed one time or more in the past year. In line with the preceding reports, overdose medication was most frequently employed among the suicide methods, and it seems to have been easily repeated. In addition, overdose medication may have a potential for leading to completed suicide, while its fatality rate is rather low. We have proposed an intervention to restrict prescription days and shorten the consultation interval for patients who have overdosed in the past year, and a system to share their information with emergency services, emergency medical institutions and family doctors.