Suicide attempts by jumping or severe self-cutting: Clinical features and differences

Abstract

Objective: Suicide attempts by jumping from a height and suicide attempts by severe self-cutting are both high-risk means of suicide. We investigated the clinical features and differences of suicide attempts by jumping and severe self-cutting. Materials and Methods: A retrospective study was performed with medical records. The survey period was five years, from June 2006 until July 2011. We compared the group of patients with suicide attempts by jumping from a height (jumping group) (n=23) and the group of patients with suicide attempts by severe self-cutting (severe self-cutting group) (n=21). The survey items are age, gender, diagnosis ICD-10, history of psychiatric visits, history of psychiatric hospitalization and history of suicide attempts. Results: The jumping group had a higher proportion of women (8 males and 15 females). On the other hand, the severe self-cutting group had a higher proportion of men (14 males and 7 females). In the ICD-10 diagnosis, the proportion of F2+F3 was higher in both groups. There was no significant difference between the two groups in regards to history of psychiatric visits, history of psychiatric hospitalization and history of suicide attempts. Focusing on the ICD-10 diagnostic category F2, about half of jumping group was associated with psychosocial factors. On the other hand, all of severe self-cutting F2 group was associated with delusional state. Conclusion: In our study, the severe self-cutting group had a higher proportion of men than the jumping group. The proportion of F2+F3 was higher in both groups. Severe self-cutting might be more strongly associated with a delusional state than jumping.