ABSTRACT
The numbers of suicides committed by patients on psychiatric wards in Sweden have increased in absolute numbers since the early 1930s (Beskow et al. 1983; Penis et al. 1980; Sociaistyrelsen 1985-7), as they have also done in other western countries (Barner-Rasmussen et al. 1986; Ernst 1979; Farberow et al. 1971; Hessö 1977; Modestin 1982; Niskanen et al. 1974). The psychiatric in-patient unit has in fact the highest concentration of help-seeking persons who will later commit suicide. At the same time, these units also have the largest numbers of personnel who are trained to analyse the problems of such persons and to offer them help. The psychiatric in-patient unit must, therefore, be a focal point for suicide prevention and at the same time a working place for developing concepts and methods in this field. In recent years many authors have reported on the study of these problems and tried to point to possibilities for prevention (Armbruster 1986; Barner-Rasmussen 1986; Crammer 1984; Foerster and Gill 1987; Fujimori and Sakaguchi 1986; Langley and Bayatti 1984; Lönnqvist et al. 1974; Modestin 1986, 1987).
