Hospital Management of Attempted Suicide in Edinburgh

Repeated Acts of Self-Poisoning and Self-Injury

“…Anybody presenting at the hospital having deliberately taken an overdose, however small, or having injured himself, however slightly, was admitted. A separate study (Kessel et al 1964) revealed that we observed more than 90% of all such patients arriving at any hospital in Edinburgh. All patients were followed for one year after they entered the series and we know of readmissions during a second year.…”

Self-poisoning. II.

“…We practise, where we think it indicated, what I term " st6sspsychotherapy," the management of the patient by administering quickly a massive dose of psychiatric treatment. Such a service, described in detail elsewhere (Kessel et al, 1963), should form an integral part of every unit for the treatment of poisoning, for there is considerable advantage in conducting resuscitation and psychiatric management in the same clinical setting. The time is past when patients should be discharged from in-patient care or, worse, after a brief unpleasant sojourn in the casualty department without a psychiatric assessment.…”

The changing pattern of attempted suicide in Edinburgh, 1962-67.

“…A study of 'attempted suicide' in Edinburgh was undertaken by Kessel andMcCulloch from mid-1962 to mid-1963 and, in part, reported in the Milroy Lectures to the Royal College of Physicians (Kessel, 1965;McCulloch, 1965). Special interest in attempted suicide has continued in Edinburgh since that time.…”