Suicide decedent presentations to the Emergency Department: a 10-year data linkage analysis evaluating non-mental health-related presentations in the year preceding suicide in Victoria, Australia.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

People who die by suicide are known to attend Emergency Departments (EDs) prior to death. Eliciting and screening for mental distress among people with non-psychiatric, medical or injury-related complaints remains challenging for clinicians worldwide. There remains a lack of data evaluating emergency presentations preceding suicide, which may lead to missed or underutilised opportunities for intervention or assessment.

Methods

This population-based retrospective data linkage study analysed ED attendances of all 6423 suicide decedents in Victoria, Australia over 18 years old who died between 2011 and 2020 according to the Victorian Suicide Register and the Victorian Emergency Minimum Dataset. We specifically examined presentations not obviously pertaining to ment

SUBMITTER: Simons SN 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12699629 | biostudies-literature | 2025

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature