Clinical and social characteristics, resources and ways of seeking help for suicides who presented at the Institute’s psychiatric clinic

Abstract

In this retrospective cross-sectional non-sampling study pursuing the objective of identifying the peculiarities of clinical (predominance of affective disorders, long-term suicide development) and social (mostly, highly educated unemployed individuals) characteristics we have examined 120 suicides who presented at the Clinic of the Moscow Research Institute of Psychiatry – Branch of the V. Serbsky National Medical Research Centre for Psychiatry and Narcology of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation. We describe the typical ways in which psychiatric (anti-crisis) care is sought. The main reason for seeking care at the Institute’s Clinic was found in the lack of satisfaction with the previous psychiatric treatment received at both private and public facilities.