Suicide attempts in Spain according to prehospital healthcare emergency records

OBJECTIVE

To analyze the number and characteristics of suicide attempts by reviewing records of the public emergency healthcare service information system.

METHOD

A retrospective observational study was conducted of emergency telephone calls received between January 1 2007 and December 31 2013 throughout the Andalusia region (Southern Spain). Cases were selected based on phone operator or healthcare team labeling. Data were analyzed on the characteristics of the individuals, the timing and severity of attempts, their prioritization, and their outcome.

RESULTS

Between January 1 2007 and December 31 2013, 20.942 calls related to suicide attempts were recorded, a rate of 34.7 attempts per 100,000 inhabitants. Most cases were classified by the public emergency healthcare service (Empresa Pública de Emergencias Sanitarias, EPES) as code X84 (The International Statistical Classification of Diseases, tenth revision, ICD-10) or 305(The International Statistical Classification of Diseases, ninth revision, ICD-9). Attempts were more frequent in the 35-49-year age group and there were similar proportions of males and females. The lowest number of calls for suicide attempts were in 2007 and the highest in 2013. Calls were more frequent during the summer months, at weekends, and between 16:00 and 23:00 h. The likelihood of evacuation to the hospital emergency department was almost two-fold lower in over 65-yr-olds than in younger individuals. Significant (ƿ = 0.001) gender differences were found in call outcome and prioritization. The most influential factor for evacuation to a hospital emergency department was the code assigned by the attending healthcare team.

CONCLUSIONS

Information obtained from extra-hospital emergency services provides valuable data on the characteristics and timing of calls related to suicide attempts, complementing information from hospital emergency departments or population surveys. There is a need to standardize the definition and recording of a suicide attempt.

Interventions and decision-making at the end of life: the effect of establishing the terminal illness situation

Background

Many ‘routine’ interventions performed in hospital rooms have repercussions for the comfort of the patient, and the decision to perform them should depend on whether the patient is identified as in a terminal phase. The aim of this study is to analyse the health interventions performed and decisions made in the last days of life in patients with advanced oncological and non-oncological illness to ascertain whether identifying the patient’s terminal illness situation has any effect on these decisions.

Methods

Retrospective study of the clinical histories of deceased patients in four hospitals in Granada (Spain) in 2010. Clinical histories corresponding to the last three months of the patient’s life were reviewed.

Results

A total of 202 clinical histories were reviewed, 60 % of which were those of non-oncology patients. Opioid prescriptions (58.4 %), palliative sedation (35.1 %) and Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) orders (34.7 %) were the decisions most often reflected in the histories, and differences in these decisions were found between patients registered as terminal and those who were not registered as terminal. The most frequent interventions in the final 14 days and 48 h were parenteral hydration (96–83 %), peripheral venous catheter (90.1–82 %) and oxygen therapy (81.2–70.5 %). There were statistically significant differences between the patients who were registered as terminal and those not registered as terminal in the number of interventions applied in the final 14 days and 48 h (p = 0.01–p = 0.00) and in many of the described treatments.

Conclusion

The recognition of a patient’s terminal status in the clinical history conditions the decisions that are made and is generally associated with a lower number of interventions.

Feelings of loss and grief in parents of children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD)

BACKGROUND

Various authors have reported feelings of loss and grief in parents of children with autism spectrum disorder. However, no previous studies have investigated the structure of these feelings.

AIMS

To analyze in depth the feelings of loss in parents of children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder.

METHOD

A qualitative study was conducted based on grounded theory. Twenty parents participated through purposive sampling.

PROCEDURE

Semi-structured interviews were conducted, asking about different emotional aspects of the upbringing of a child with autism spectrum disorder. Atlas.ti 6.2 program was used for open, axial, and selective coding.

RESULTS

The core category that explained the feelings of these parents was unexpected child loss, associated with shock, negation, fear, guilt, anger, and/or sadness. Two processes were identified, one associated with the resolution of grief and the other with obstacles to overcoming it.

IMPLICATIONS

Feelings of loss play an important role in explaining the complex emotions experienced by these parents. Different intervention strategies are proposed.