Double Suicide in Psychiatric Hospital Patients

Abstract

This report was stimulated by the fact that two middle-aged depressive male patients killed themselves in the same ward under identical circumstances within a fortnight. It was thought that it would possibly be instructive to examine the hospital records since its opening in 1866 to look at the available information about patients who had committed suicide whilst under inpatient care here. The total number of suicides to date has been 24 and in the years 1901, 1911, 1955, 1957 and 1965 there have been two suicides in each year. There was sufficient information available to suggest that there were certain similarities between those occurring in the years 1901, 1957 and 1965, so these cases are considered in greater detail in the following reports.