Suicide Risk After First Attempt Can Persist for Years, Study Finds

Followup is critical, say researchers

Anti-suicide fences along the Iron Workers Memorial bridge linking Burnaby and North Vancouver. The newly installed fences are meant to prevent suicidal people from jumping from the bridge. The risk of suicide after an initial attempt is 42 times higher than that of the general population and could persist for years, according to a new study. The Canadian Press/Jonathan Hayward

TORONTO—A Canadian study has found that the risk of suicide after an initial attempt was 42 times higher than that of the general population and could persist for years.

In what is said to be the largest study of its kind, Toronto researchers tracked every person who came to a hospital emergency department in Ontario for self-poisoning between April 2002 and December 2010.

They identified 65,784 children and adults who survived the suicide attempt, including almost 18,500 teenagers.

Of the 65,000-plus patients discharged after a self-poisoning episode—the most common way of trying to take one’s own life—4,176 individuals died during the followup study period, 976 of them by suicide.

Among those who committed suicide were 107 teens, who took their own lives just over two years on average after their first attempt.

Among those who committed suicide were 107 teens, who took their own lives just over two years on average after their first attempt.