Background:

Suicide is considered a public health problem due to its scope and magnitude.

Aim:

To determine the sociodemographic and clinical variables associated with suicide attempts among the population attended in the emergency department of a psychiatric hospital, and to compare consultations for a suicide attempt with consultations for other reasons.

Methods:

Observational retrospective study carried out in a psychiatric emergency department in which data from 498 people who had attended for a suicide attempt and 502 who had attended for other reasons for consultation were studied over a period of 7 years.

Results:

In the group of patients with a suicide attempt there was a higher percentage of women, with a slightly older mean age than the other group, they were married, of Spanish nationality, with the diagnosis of mood disorder and substance abuse disorders as the most predominant, with a lower percentage of previous psychiatric admissions, no family history of mental illness and no psychotic symptoms.

Conclusions:

Considering the structure and functioning of mental health services in the area and the particularity of the setting, we stress the need to consider the present results both for direct care and for the design of specific prevention strategies.

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