Almost a quarter of all suicides take place within three months of patients being released from hospital, according to a major study.

 

The study, released by The British Journal of Psychiatry, looked at the medical records of people over 15 years old over a three decade period in Scotland. It found that people who committed suicide were three times more likely to have last been released from a general hospital rather than a psychiatric one.

 

The study calls for better psychiatric evaluation of patients in general hospital settings, with only 14% of those released from a general hospital having a psychiatric diagnosis listed from their last visit.