A Comparison of Suicide and Undetermined Deaths in Psychiatric Patients

Abstract

Those people who had previously been patients of the Department of Mental Health of Missouri who died in the three year period 1972 through 1974 and whose deaths were designated as suicide or "undetermined whether purposely or accidentally inflicted," were identified by matching statewide death tapes against the DMH data base. The demographic characteristics of the two groups are compared to ascertain if the members of the undetermined group are essentially similar to the suicides, as has frequently been hypothesized. It is found that, in general, the similarities are in areas which would not have had a direct influence on the medical examiner/coroner's verdict, whereas, the differences do highlight areas which could cause an indecisive verdict. The significance of the undetermined deaths is discussed.

Identifying psychiatric suicides for research purposes

“…In order to be most meaningful, we have compared the data on unusual accidents (n = 72) with data previously reported (Nuttall et al, 1980) for suicides (n = 220) and undetermined deaths (n = 80).…”

“…In an earlier paper, we have compared 220 suicides and 80 "undetermined" deaths taken from the rolls of the Missouri Department of Mental Health during a 3-year period (Nuttall, Evenson, & Cho, 1980). The purpose of the present study was to compare further 72 "unusual" accidents to the undetermined and suicide dcaths, all drawn from the same data-base.…”