Possible factors influencing the duration of hospital stay in patients with psychiatric disorders attempting suicide by jumping

Suicide is a serious public health problem in Japan. The recent Japanese suicide prevention system has decreased the number of people who commit suicide every year since 2010. However, the problem of suicide remains and affects more than 25,000 people per year in Japan. The high rate of suicide in Japan may be caused by several reasons, including the economic recession and the rising unemployment rate [1]. Psychiatric disorders have been considered main reasons for suicide [2]. In a suicide prevention manual, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that 90% of patients who completed suicides have psychiatric disorders [3]. Of all psychiatric disorders, the suicide risk in schizophrenia has been demonstrated in a number of studies [4, 5], and the mortality rate for suicide was found to be higher in patients with schizophrenia than in the general population. The lifetime suicide rates in patients with schizophrenia are estimated to be 4–10% [6, 7]. The risk factors for suicide in patients with schizophrenia include a history of suicide attempt, male sex, a poor adherence to treatment, a depressed mood and alcohol dependence [4, 8]. The risk factors for suicide attempt in patients with schizophrenia include depressive episodes, hopelessness and greater insight into the illness [9]. Therefore, the relationships between attempted suicide and suicide in patients with schizophrenia have been frequently reported. In contrast, few studies have reported that factors on medical treatments after suicide attempted were evaluated.

Almost all individuals who attempt suicide and are transported to an advanced emergency medical service center suffer from psychiatric disorders [10]. In a study that evaluated suicide attempts among individuals with a psychiatric disorder admitted to a hospital emergency department in an urban city in Japan, the most common method for suicide was drug overdose, followed by laceration, and then jumping from a height [11]. Fall injuries require physical treatment and rehabilitation as well as psychiatric treatment; in addition, these injuries take a long time to treat because there are often multiple injuries. However, Japanese advanced emergency medical service centers do not frequently have departments of psychiatry and rehabilitation. Therefore, some suicide attempters with psychiatric disorders are not able to receive comprehensive medical treatment. Non-comprehensive treatment in patients with fall injuries causes a long length of hospital stay, severe motility disturbances and an acute exacerbation of psychiatric symptoms. There are 768 inpatient beds at the Osaka General Medical Center (OGMC), including an advanced critical care center (18 beds), a psychiatric inpatient unit (34 beds) and an advanced rehabilitation center (87 beds). Patients with combined physical and psychiatric disorders are able to receive psychiatric and physical treatments and rehabilitation in a cooperative system in our center. Patients with fall injuries who do not have access to sufficient treatment are transferred to the OGMC to receive psychiatric treatment and rehabilitation.

We previously demonstrated that jumping from a height was significantly associated with schizophrenia spectrum disorders among suicide attempters with psychiatric diagnoses, whereas self-stabbing was significantly associated with mood disorders [12]. Little is known regarding the differences in the diagnostic and clinical characteristics in suicide attempters by jumping. The purpose of this study was therefore to evaluate factors influencing hospital stays among Japanese patients with psychiatric disorders attempting suicide by jumping.

To the best of our knowledge, the present study is the first to diagnose suicide attempts by jumping based on ICD-10 codes and to show the mean hospital stay for each diagnosis. The F2 code, which was applied to patients diagnosed with schizophrenia, was the most common of all diagnostic codes among suicide attempters. In addition, patients with schizophrenia showed significantly longer hospital stays compared with patients with other psychiatric diagnoses. We further investigated the clinical characteristics impacting the length of hospital stay between the schizophrenia and other psychiatric diagnoses groups. The number of injured body parts, particularly lower-limb fractures, was significantly higher in patients with schizophrenia than in patients with other psychiatric diagnoses. Nevertheless, there were no significant differences in jumping height between the two groups.

In comparison with previous reports [13‐15], we show similar findings regarding the fractures in patients with schizophrenia. One possible explanation for the high risk of fractures in patients with schizophrenia is that antipsychotic-related hyperprolactinemia induces impaired metabolism of bone cells and a high rate of loss of bone mineral density [16, 17]. Kishimoto et al. [18] suggested that non-healthy lifestyle behaviors, including insufficient exercise, poor nutrition, smoking, alcohol use and low vitamin D levels, had an impact on a higher risk of fracture. A Taiwanese case-control study (605 patients and 2828 controls) found that current antipsychotic use was associated with an increased risk for hip fracture (adjusted odds ratio (OR) = 1.61; 95% CI = 1.24–2.10) and that new users had a higher risk of hip fracture (adjusted OR = 4.28; 95% CI = 1.76–10.36) compared with past users (adjusted OR = 1.11; 95% CI = 0.79–1.56) [14]. We found that the age and duration of psychiatric treatment in patients with schizophrenia were significantly older (z = 2.6, p = 0.009) and longer (z = 3.4, p = 0.001) than in patients with other psychiatric diagnoses. The majority of patients with schizophrenia had received psychiatric treatment for more than 10 years since their initial treatment. The ratio of patients taking antipsychotics was significantly higher among those with schizophrenia (62.2%) compared to those with other psychiatric diagnoses (38.2%) (z = 5.8, p = 0.016). Moreover, the dosage of antipsychotics (mg/day) was significantly higher among patients with schizophrenia (216.1 ± 303.7) compared with those with other psychiatric diagnoses (157.2 ± 435.4) (z = 2.7, p = 0.008). These findings suggest that the current use of antipsychotics and a longer duration of taking antipsychotics might contribute to the risk of bone fracture via hyperprolactinemia. However, we did not examine the level of prolactin in our patients. Thus, future studies should examine the impact of serum prolactin on managing patients with schizophrenia.

In the present study, we found that the number of lower-limb fractures was higher in the schizophrenia group compared with the other psychiatric diagnoses group (z = 4.9, p = 0.026). The management of lower-limb fractures takes a long time and requires partial weight bearing. Partial weight bearing is a common principle of postoperative treatment during the rehabilitation phase after lower-limb fracture, employing modern concepts of stable fracture fixation. Weight bearing begins on the first postoperative day and increases stepwise until full weight bearing is achieved; therefore, full weight bearing in the early postoperative phase might endanger the stability of the reconstruction and the surgical result [19].

Moreover, cognitive impairment, which is known to be a common feature in schizophrenia, might prevent rehabilitation for the treatment of fall injuries. Indeed, researchers have voiced different opinions regarding when cognitive impairments in patients with schizophrenia begin. These opinions can be broadly divided into two groups: early development, after the onset of illness, or both. Several studies have revealed that individuals who subsequently develop schizophrenia show cognitive deficits before the onset of the illness [20, 21]. Kaneko et al. [22] reported that a wide range of cognitive deficits appeared gradually after the onset of the illness and impaired patients’ functional reintegration. Although there are many studies regarding the association between cognitive deficits and antipsychotics, Husa et al. [23] and Knowles et al. [24] reported that the use of high doses of antipsychotics might be associated with decreased functions of verbal learning and memory in patients with schizophrenia after illness onset. In addition, Keefe et al. [25] reported that antipsychotic treatments improved symptoms but had little impact on cognitive function. Previous studies have frequently suggested that worsening and relapse of psychiatric symptoms may promote cognitive deficits [26, 27]. From these results, a moderate dose of antipsychotics may be sufficient to prevent suicidal attempts. Although we did not evaluate cognitive function in our samples, we suggest that future studies should examine cognitive function in relation to managing rehabilitation in patients with schizophrenia.

To date, the relationship between the risk of suicide attempt and taking antipsychotics in patients with schizophrenia has been frequently reported [7, 28, 29]. Several studies have suggested that poor adherence to medication is one of the risk factors for suicide attempts in patients with schizophrenia [7, 28]. Novick et al. [29] reported that exacerbations of psychiatric symptoms by drug deprivation could result in suicide attempts and an increased length of hospital stay. The rate of taking antipsychotics among patients with schizophrenia was low (62.2%) in the present study, which might have increased the risk of suicide attempts. The other patients with schizophrenia (37.8%) had discontinued their medications before their suicide attempts. Moreover, psychosocial factors, such as a high intelligence quotient (IQ) and a high level of premorbid function, have been associated with an increased risk of suicide in patients with schizophrenia [30]. Indeed, we observed additional years of education in patients with schizophrenia than in patients with other psychiatric diagnoses (z = 2.5, p = .014). Therefore, education may have had an impact on the risk of suicide attempts.

This study has several limitations. First, because the participants included in this study were patients hospitalized in the psychiatric inpatient unit at a single hospital, our results were not derived from suicide attempt cases admitted to the psychiatric inpatient unit. Second, this study did not include subjects who completed their suicide attempts; in addition, some suicide attempters died before hospitalization. Third, we could not monitor the prolactin level or cognitive function in all suicide attempters, as discussed above.

Fourth, we have not evaluated the effects of psychiatric symptoms in each psychiatric disorder on length of stay. The psychiatric symptoms might lead to improper cure of physically injurious parts.

Finally, the side effects of antipsychotics, such as extrapyramidal symptoms (EPS), orthostatic hypotension and over-sedation, may have prevented the rehabilitation from treating fall injuries in this study.

Our findings suggest that the presence of lower-limb fractures in patients with schizophrenia may be useful for determining the therapeutic strategy, including psychiatric and physical treatments and rehabilitation in a cooperative system. We suggest that our findings might contribute to decreasing the hospital stay of patients with psychiatric disorders attempting suicide by jumping by establishing a collaborative relationship between psychiatrists and the other doctors. However, additional hospitals that can provide both psychiatric treatment and rehabilitation are required, and further studies with larger sample sizes and more detailed clinical information are needed to assess the factors associated with a lengthened hospital stay in patients with psychiatric disorders who attempt suicide.