Tang ES, Ren WL, Zou H. Sociodemographic characteristics of suicide attempters treated in the emergency department and the effect of psychological care. World J Psychiatry 2026; 16(1): 108761 [DOI: 10.5498/wjp.v16.i1.108761]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Hua Zou, MD, Department of Emergency, The Central Hospital of Enshi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, No. 158 Wuyang Avenue, Enshi 445000, Hubei Province, China. tang66ensheng@163.com
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Medicine, General & Internal
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Retrospective Cohort Study
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This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Jan 19, 2026 (publication date) through Dec 31, 2025
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World Journal of Psychiatry
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Tang ES, Ren WL, Zou H. Sociodemographic characteristics of suicide attempters treated in the emergency department and the effect of psychological care. World J Psychiatry 2026; 16(1): 108761 [DOI: 10.5498/wjp.v16.i1.108761]
World J Psychiatry. Jan 19, 2026; 16(1): 108761 Published online Jan 19, 2026. doi: 10.5498/wjp.v16.i1.108761
Sociodemographic characteristics of suicide attempters treated in the emergency department and the effect of psychological care
En-Sheng Tang, Wan-Li Ren, Hua Zou
En-Sheng Tang, Department of Pre-Hospital Emergency, The Central Hospital of Enshi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, Enshi 445000, Hubei Province, China
Wan-Li Ren, Psychological Counseling Clinic, The Central Hospital of Enshi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, Enshi 445000, Hubei Province, China
Hua Zou, Department of Emergency, The Central Hospital of Enshi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, Enshi 445000, Hubei Province, China
Author contributions: Tang ES contributed to the conceptualization, data curation, methodology, software, and writing - original draft; Ren WL contributed to the formal analysis, project administration, and visualization; Zou H contributed to the investigation, supervision, validation, writing - review & editing.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved for publication by the Ethics Committee of the Central Hospital of Enshi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, approval No. LL20240422.
Informed consent statement: All study participants or their legal guardian provided informed written consent about personal and medical data collection prior to study enrolment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement-checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement-checklist of items.
Data sharing statement: The original anonymous dataset is available on request from the corresponding author at tang66ensheng@163.com.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Hua Zou, MD, Department of Emergency, The Central Hospital of Enshi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, No. 158 Wuyang Avenue, Enshi 445000, Hubei Province, China. tang66ensheng@163.com
Received: June 27, 2025 Revised: July 25, 2025 Accepted: November 3, 2025 Published online: January 19, 2026 Processing time: 186 Days and 19.1 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND
Appropriate care for individuals who attempt suicide and are admitted to the emergency department (ED) can prevent future suicidal behavior. It is vital to understand their sociodemographic characteristics and the effects of targeted psychological care.
AIM
To analyze sociodemographic characteristics of suicide attempters treated in the ED and evaluate the efficacy of psychological care.
METHODS
Data from 239 suicide attempters treated in the ED of the Central Hospital of Enshi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture (Hubei Province, China) between January 2021 and February 2025 were divided into 2: Control (n = 108) and psychological care (n = 131). The demographic characteristics and effects of the psychological care were analyzed.
RESULTS
The mean (± SD) age of the 239 patients [114 male (47.7%), 125 female (52.3%)] was 26.25 ± 9.3 years, of whom 122 (45.2%) were single, 117 (48.9%) were married, and 106 (44.4%) had secondary education. Thirty-eight (15.9%) patients had suicidal intent, with a mean of 1.26 ± 0.59 suicide attempts each. Twenty-two (9.21%) patients had a family history of suicide, while 8 (3.34%) had a family history of suicide attempt(s). Before intervention, mean Suicidal Intent Scale scores in the psychological nursing and control groups were 21.57 ± 5.28 and 19.86 ± 5.92, respectively (P > 0.05). After 1 month of nursing intervention, the respective scores were 10.09 ± 1.11 and 16.48 ± 0.87 (P < 0.001); and the re-suicide rates were 11.45% (15/131) and 24.07% (26/108) (P < 0.001).
CONCLUSION
Psychological care significantly reduces suicide risk; EDs should provide comprehensive mental health care.
Core Tip: This study analyzed data from 239 suicide attempters admitted to the emergency department (mean age 26.25 years; 52.3% female) to evaluate the efficacy of psychological care. Post-intervention, the psychological care group (n = 131) exhibited significantly reduced Suicidal Intent Scale scores (10.09 vs 16.48) and lower re-suicide rates (11.45% vs 24.07%) compared with the control group (n = 108). The results underscore the critical role of structured psychological interventions in emergency departments to mitigate suicide risk(s), advocating integrated mental health support in acute care settings.
