Evaluation of pregnant patients admitted to the emergency department with suicide attempt

Objective: In the pregnancy period, the incidence of suicide attempt is lower compared to other life-periods. However, according to the recent studies, suicide attempts may lead life-threatening consequences in high-risk pregnant women. The aim of this study is to compare pregnant patients admitted to the emergency department for suicide attempt in terms of their sociodemographic and clinical properties and suicide attempt methods. Methods: In this study, 56 patients admitted to the emergency department of university for suicide attempt between January 1, 2009, and December 31, 2014, were included and they were classified according to suicide attempt methods into 2 groups as violent ones. Group 1 included violent methods as hanging, jumping, shooting and Group 2 included non-violent method as drugs. The study was a retrospective cross-sectional study. The sociodemographic, psychiatric and clinical properties of the patients were identified by patient registry system and patient files, and inter-group differences were compared. Results: In this study, 15 (26.7%) patients in the violent suicide attempt group, and 41 (73.3%) patients in the non-violent suicide attempt group, totally 56 patients were included. In the non-violent suicide attempt group, cigarette smoking, suicide attempt due to boredom, and live birth was significantly higher as compared to violent group; hospitalization period and fetal death was lower (p=0.04; p=0.006; p=0.004; p=0.004, respectively). Conclusion: Most of our pregnant suicide attempt patients are in the non-violent group, however, violent suicide attempt increased hospitalization period and fetal mortality significantly.