To call your patient after a suicide attempt may help

Telephoning patients who have attempted suicide one month after their discharge from an emergency department may help reduce the number who reattempt suicide in the next year. Vaiva and colleagues (p 1241) randomised 605 people who had attempted suicide to telephone contact (to evaluate the success of recommended treatment or to adjust it) at one or three months or to standard care (usually referral to their general practitioner). Fewer participants contacted by telephone at one month reattempted suicide compared with controls, but those contacted at three months showed no significant difference from controls.