Term: Suicide Attempts

Glossary Definition

Last Updated: 2010-08-17

Definition:

Suicide attempt, also known as "self-inflicted injury" or para-suicide, does not result in death (Martens et al., 2010).

In Martens et al. (2004), suicide attempts were defined as the presence of any codes identifying a suicide attempt using definitions derived from the Vital Statistics (Mortality) data, Medical Services/Physician Claims data, or Hospital Discharge Abstracts data. These include suicide and self-inflicted injury codes, as well as accidental poisonings in combination with a psychiatric tariff code either during the hospital stay or within 30 days post-discharge. For purposes of analyses, suicide attempts do NOT include those events that were a suicide completion. A person can have more than one suicide attempt during the five-year period. All analyses are restricted to those aged 10 years or more, and over a five-year time period.

Note: See the subsection on Suicide Attempts in the Suicide concept for specific diagnostic criteria.

Related concepts 

Related terms 

References 

Term used in