Am J Psychiatry 1975; 132:1212-1214
Copyright © 1975 by American Psychiatric Association
Suicide rate of callers to a poison information service
HS Sudak, GJ Sterin and HB Houser
The authors assessed the frequency of suicide subsequent to calls to a
poison information center in a follow-up study. The 8 confirmed suicides
out of 2,177 calls yielded a rate of 66.8 per 100,000
population--significantly higher than that for the general population. In
addition, 15 possible or probable suicides were identified. The authors
note that poison center callers seem to constitute a pool of significantly
suicidal persons and reaffirm the premise that poison centers and suicide
centers should coordinate their efforts.
