Physicians' Explanatory Model for Suicide Prevention: Text-mining Analysis of Physicians' Statements to Suicidal Patients

Abstract

This study examined physicians' explanatory model for suicide prevention in the statements made by physicians to patients with suicidal ideation. We asked physicians who had experiences of communicating with suicidal patients to describe the statements they made to the patients. A total of 166 responses to the open question were used in text-mining analysis, and frequently used words were identified. In addition, with correspondence analysis, we found five clusters for the statements: sympathy and support for confiding the problem, advice to see a psychiatrist, prognosis and recovery, no-suicide contracts, and meaning of life and consideration to others. We also discussed the relationship between the cluster variables and the patients' gender and age.