Most provocative study of suicide ever? Best predictors of suicide are psychiatric treatment

[HereSince1628]

2. Yes that's surely part of it.

But because suicide tends to be impulsive, people usually don't become progressively more suicidal, a couple of other important things are possible...

First, the people who are "44 times more likely to succeed at suicide" first seek help with symptoms serious enough to warrant hospitalization. That's potentially very useful as it clearly identifies the cohort with great need not only during hospitalization but in the year following that event. Those patients pretty clearly need to be followed regularly for at least a year and possibly longer after a psychiatric hospitalization. That's pretty important as insurance companies, and many psych clinics restrict the number and frequency of visits.

Second, the study might be interpreted as indicating that the treatment for the patients at highest risk for suicide doesn't yield a satisfactorily durable resolution of the crisis--suicidal behaviors return at too high a relative risk within a year. Whether that is because the treatments used are inadequate for that severity of patient, or if the patients with the highest risk are also most resistant to treatment would be an open question.

In any case the study certainly suggests there are follow-up research questions worthy of pursuit.