Orthopedics Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Orthopedics, including details on chronic injuries, muscoskeletal disorders, surgery, reconstruction.

Suicide during hospitalization in patients with spinal disease.

Kasai Y, Kawakita E, Uchida A

Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Mie University Faculty of Medicine, Tsu city, Mie, Japan. ykasai@clin.medic.mie-u.ac.jp

STUDY DESIGN: A retrospective study. OBJECTIVE: To examine the frequency and current status of the incidence of deaths by suicide of patients with spinal diseases during hospitalization. SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA: It was reported that most cases of deaths by suicide during hospitalization were patients admitted to the psychiatric ward. There were no reports to the incidence of death by suicide during hospitalization in patients with spinal diseases. METHODS: Of 69,861 patients admitted to the Department of Orthopedics of 28 affiliated hospitals of our university between September 1997 and August 2002, 14,987 patients with spinal diseases were targeted for this study. We examined the number of deaths by suicide during hospitalization. RESULTS: Of the 14,987 patients with spinal diseases, there were 5 deaths (0.03%) by suicide during hospitalization. There were no deaths by suicide in 54,874 patients with orthopedic diseases other than spinal diseases. CONCLUSION: In the treatment of patients with spinal diseases, it seemed important for spinal surgeons to provide comprehensive treatment for the whole patient by paying attention to the relationship between a patient and a physician, in particular, by carefully observing the psychologic status of a patient.

Published 22 August 2006 in Spine, 31(17): 1981-2.
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