Table 1.

Description of Underlying Suffering at Start of Counselling and Seriousness of Disease (According to Counselor) of Counselees Passing Away Through Self-Ingesting Self-Collected Lethal Medication (MED) Divided by Primary Underlying Suffering at Start of Counseling (According to Counselor; N = 273; Missing N = 2).

	Primary underlying suffering
	All (N = 273)		Physical suffering (N = 114)		Psychiatric suffering (N = 86)		Psychological or no suffering (N = 71)
	N	%	N	% (95% CI)	N	% (95% CI)	N	% (95% CI)
Description of underlying suffering a,b	N = 271				N = 85 c		N = 69 c
Physical suffering	N = 114	42
Accumulation problems of old age d	38	14	26	23 [16, 31]	0	0 [0, 3]	12	17 [10, 28]
Dementia	19	7	11	10 [5, 16]	1	1 [0, 5]	7	10 [5, 19]
Cancer	16	6	14	12 [7, 19]	0	0 [0, 3]	2	3 [1, 9]
Rheumatic	13	5	12	11 [6, 17]	1	1 [0, 5]	0	0 [0, 4]
Pain	12	4	12	11 [6, 17]	0	0 [0, 3]	0	0 [0, 4]
Physical other e	67	25	49	43 [34, 52]	12	14 [8, 23]	6	9 [4, 17]
Psychiatric suffering	N = 86	32
Mood disorders	59	22	2	2 [0, 6]	51	60 [49, 70]	6	9 [4, 17]
Personality disorders	36	13	0	0 [0, 2]	33	39 [29, 49]	3	4 [1, 11]
Trauma and stress disorders	24	9	1	1 [0, 4]	17	20 [13, 29]	6	9 [4, 17]
Fear disorders	24	9	0	0 [0, 2]	14	16 [10, 25]	4	6 [2, 13]
Obsessive-compulsive disorder	20	7	1	1 [0, 4]	14	16 [10, 25]	5	7 [3, 15]
Psychiatric other f	6	2	0	0 [0, 2]	5	6 [2, 12]	1	1 [0, 7]
Psychological or no suffering	N = 71	26
Completed life	52	19	12	11 [6, 17]	6	7 [3, 14]	32	46 [35, 58]
Self-determination	11	4	3	3 [1, 7]	0	0 [0, 3]	8	12 [6, 21]
Psychological other g	22	8	6	5 [2, 11]	2	2 [0, 7]	14	20 [12, 31]
Seriousness of disease	N = 249 h		N = 107 h		N = 76 i		N = 64 h
Terminal/serious disease	162	65	84	79 [70, 85]	62	82 [72, 89]	16	25 [15, 37]
No (serious) disease	87	35	23	22 [15, 30]	14	18 [11, 28]	48	75 [63, 84]

Note. CI = confidence interval.

^aOnly the clarifications of underlying suffering mentioned if suffering occurred in ≥ 4% of all counselees.

^bAdds up to more than 100% due to comorbidity.

^cMissing less than 5%.

^dAn accumulation of problems related to old age concerns a comorbidity of lesser nonserious problems of old age, for example, problems with mobility, loss of eyesight, weakening physical condition, and so forth.

^ePhysical other includes sleep-wake disorders, heart and vascular diseases, Parkinson’s disease, muscular diseases, osteoporosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, tinnitus, neurological disorders, autism, Lyme disease, and deafness.

^fPsychiatric other includes feeding and eating disorders.

^gPsychological other includes grief, loneliness, addiction, gender issues, and family problems.

^hMissing between 5% and 10%.

ⁱMissing ≥ 10%.