Crisis
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The firearms climate in Ireland is rapidly changing, and there is currently no research on the risk profiles of those dying through firearms suicides. ⋯ The findings have implications for awareness training for suicide prevention workers and for those concerned with Ireland's increasingly liberal firearms climate.
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Suicidal behavior is an understudied subject in Pakistan, a South-Asian developing country with a predominantly Muslim population. ⋯ Patients who left the ED without psychosocial assessment are at increased risk for repetition of DSH as well as suicide.
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Comparative Study
The attitudes of emergency staff toward attempted suicide patients: a comparative study before and after establishment of a psychiatric consultation service.
The staff in the emergency room of general hospitals are under heavy work pressure and seem to reveal negative attitudes toward suicide attempters. From earlier studies there is indirect evidence that the attitudes of staff who have the opportunity to consult a psychiatrist are less negative. ⋯ The results suggest that providing a psychiatric consultation service did not significantly affect attitudes among general hospital emergency room staff toward attempted suicide patients during its first year of operation, but in general, the emergency room staff was content with the opportunity for psychiatric consultation.
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A retrospective review of 98 patients through medical and billing records, over a period of 12 months (January to December 2004), was conducted to evaluate the cost of treatment of patients presenting with deliberate self-harm (DSH) to a private tertiary care teaching hospital in Karachi, Pakistan. After initial treatment in the Emergency Department (ED), 34 patients were admitted to the medical wards for further treatment and 64 patients were either discharged or left against medical advice from ED. ⋯ The cost of treatment of DSH is extremely high in a country like Pakistan, where the patients have to bear the hospital cost out of their own pocket. The most important determinant of cost was length of hospital stay, averaging 2.91 days.