Survey Of Family Function On Suicide Attempters Attended To The General Hospital Emergency Room In Shenyang

ObjectiveThere are 2 million suicide attempters every year in China. In order to prevent repeated suicide, we should get to know its risk factors firstly. The risk factors of attempted suicide not only have self characteristic, but also contain some social environmental factors. Among them, family relationship is an important dimension. International studies showed that the lower family cohesion and adaptabilities, the higher risk of suicide or attempted suicide. Domestic studies showed that family cohesion and adaptability of suicide attempters was low, and the possibility of repeated suicide increased obviously. According to these researches, we investigated the suicide attempters attended to emergency room of third grade general hospital in Shenyang, intend to know their family function and to get some theoretical proof for preventing repeated suicide.MethodsThe 4 hospitals were selected randomly from 15 third grade general hospitals in Shenyang. Inclusion Criteria was suicide attempters attended to emergency room that aged 15 or more. We screened 403 patients through a 6-months survey, and 239 of these patients joined in this research. The family functions of these suicide attempters were evaluated by the Family Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scale Chinese Version (FACES-CV). 186 patients completed FACES-CV, and other 53 did not because of living alone or living in the collective dormitory or going out more than one month continuously. Using DSM-IV-R Axis I Disorders(SCID) clinical examination as a diagnostic tool for mental disorders. At the same time, the general condition and suicide characteristics of suicide attempted patient was evaluated. The relationship between the family cohesion and adaptability of different types of families and suicide attempted were explored by rank sum test, Spearman rank correlation and multiple linear regression analysis.Results1.186 patients characteristicsOf the 186 patients, 91(48.92%) were attempted suicide due to family disputes, 125(67.20%)did not have suicidal ideation, 123(66.13%) due to a sense of despair, 91(48.92%)due to poor social network support, 104(55.91%) did not have impulse, 3 l(16.67%)had attempted suicide one time before, 47(25.27%) had want-to-die degrees ranged at 50～80 scores, 78(41.94%) had difficulties in daily life and work because of psychological problems, 41(22.04%) were unemployed whose family cohesion and/or adaptive were worst. History of suicide attempts, suicide methods, suicide ideation and occupation could predict family cohesion and adaptability of the family and couples version.2. The family version featuresAmong the 117 patient of the extended family, 36(30.77%) had want-to-die degrees ranged at 50～80 scores, 10(8.55%) had religious beliefs, 75(64.10%) accepted the facts and did not regret, 58(49.57%) had poor social support network, 52(75.36%) had difficulties in daily life and work due to psychological problems. The family adaptability of the above mentioned patients were worst.3. The couple edition featuresOf the 69 couples, 50(72.46%) without suicidal ideation, 34(49.28%) were attempted suicide due to family disputes, 34(49.28%) did not have impulse, 32(46.38%) want to get relief, 42(60.87%) due to a sense of despair, 33(47.83%) had poor social support networks, 26(37.68%) had difficulties in daily life and work due to psychological problems, 36(52.17%) suffered from mood disorders, 44(63.77%) suffered from anxiety disorders whose family cohesion and/or adaptability were worst.4. Comparison of different dimensions of the same variable of the two versionsThere are difference between the family edition and couples edition in the following demographic and suicide characteristics: 15～29-year-old, unmarried, love problems, suicidal purpose, whether have the sense of despair, whether have the suicide ideation and suicide hours.ConclusionsThe family cohesion and adaptability of attempted suicide are poor, which demonstrate that the family function play an important role on the causes of suicide and repeated suicide. There are differences between the attempted suicide that had completed this survey of family edition and couples edition in demographic and suicide characteristics.