Suicidal Thoughts And Attempts Among Patients With Chronic Somatic Diseases With Disabilities

Abstract

Patients with a physical chronic disease with a disability who attempt to commit suicide have more pronounced suicidal thoughts compared to patients without a disability who do not attempt suicide. There are suicidal thoughts, which are a prerequisite for suicidal attempts in patients with chronic diseases with disabilities. Among patients with a chronic disease with a disability, 25% of those who attempted suicide, the majority (92%) had suicidal thoughts.Physical symptoms and related disorders are present in almost all medical specialties but can be difficult to identify. Practical recommendations for physical illnesses with disabilities and related disorders focus on diagnosis, building a therapeutic relationship with the patient, psychosocial assessment, management in general medical institutions and psychological treatment. Only fewer patients identified turn to screening for suicidal thoughts [1, 2], and no one discusses the assessment of suicidal risk. More attention is being paid to the potentially harmful consequences of prescribing unnecessary treatments, especially those that can be dangerous or costly [1, 3, 6]. Assessment of suicidal risk is an important aspect in the practice of treating mental disorders, although relatively little attention has been paid to this risk in somatic disorders. Suicide accounts for 1.4% of premature deaths worldwide, and patients are often screened for symptoms of suicide when diagnosed with conditions such as anxiety and depression [4]. Certain groups are considered to be at high risk, such as people with chronic illnesses and people with mental illnesses such as depression and anxiety [1,2,3,6].In recent years, studies have reported a significant correlation between depression and suicide, and suicide rates in patients with depression are much higher than the general population [1,3,4]. Much previous evidence has also indicated that patients with poor prognosis (especially cancer) are more likely to fall into despair, suffer depression and subsequently commit suicide [5,7].

The present study was conducted to determine whether there is a correlation between suicidal thoughts and suicidal attempts in patients with physical chronic illness with a disability and to determine whether any risk is independent of the disability of comorbid physical disorders.