A growing body of evidence suggests that psychiatric hospitalization itself may be a major risk factor for suicide and other harms to patients’ mental health, especially for those admitted against their will. Citizens Commission on Human Rights is calling on Congress to investigate.

Patients discharged from psychiatric hospitalization face a risk of premature death eight times higher than in the general population, and a risk of suicide 33 times higher, with an even greater risk of suicide – 54 times higher – in the first year after discharge, a new study has found.  The study adds to a growing body of evidence indicating that psychiatric hospitalization does not decrease, but can actually increase the risk of suicide and other harmful outcomes for patients, especially for those receiving treatment against their will. 

Researchers in Spain, Norway and the United States examined medical records of over 49,000 psychiatric patients in Spain who had received psychiatric hospitalization from 2014-2018.  They found that in a follow-up period of one to six years after discharge, 1 in 20 patients (5%) died prematurely (before the age of 70), with the risk of premature death almost eight times higher than in the general population. 

Of even greater concern is the finding that 1 in 10 (10%) committed acts of self-harm, including attempted suicide, after discharge from psychiatric hospitalization, while 1 in 100 (1%) died from suicide.  The risk of suicide was 33 times greater than in the general population during the study’s follow-up period, with an even higher 54 times greater risk in the first year post-discharge.

The study findings indicate that “individuals discharged from psychiatric inpatient care are a vulnerable population for premature death and suicidal behavior,” wrote lead researcher Philippe Mortier, Ph.D., at the Hospital del Mar Research Institute in Barcelona, Spain.  The study was published in JAMA Psychiatry.

Almost 1 in 4 (24%) of the patients hospitalized during the period under study had prior psychiatric hospitalizations, another indication of the inadequacy of psychiatric treatment.

These findings are consistent with other studies other studies which have found that admission to a psychiatric facility is highly associated with the risk of dying from suicide.  A study earlier this year pinpointed the first few days and weeks after discharge as a period of extremely high risk of suicide for patients who received psychiatric hospitalization for depression.  Even many years after discharge, previously hospitalized psychiatric patients have high suicide rates compared to the general population, another study found.

People admitted to a psychiatric facility against their will are even more likely to attempt suicide after discharge than psychiatric patients who were not forcibly admitted, according to research findings.

Antidepressants and other psychiatric drugs used as treatment during hospitalization are also linked to suicidal behavior.  Researchers conducting a 2019 re-analysis of safety summaries in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) database found evidence that depressed patients receiving antidepressants attempted suicide at a rate 2.5 times higher than those who received a placebo.

“With substantial evidence that psychiatric hospitalization and treatment result in significant harm to many patients, especially increasing the risk of suicide, the Citizens Commission on Human Right is calling on Congress to investigate in-patient psychiatric treatment,” said Anne Goedeke, president of the organization’s National Affairs Office. 

“The current standard treatment in psychiatric facilities is not only failing to decrease the rate of suicide in the U.S., but it is increasing it at a cost of human lives.  This must stop.”