Should we resuscitate patients admitted for suicide attempt?

Abstract

Since 1998, different national programs of action against suicide have been set up to reduce the number of persons ending voluntary their life. These 15 years have also led to consider suicide and attempted suicide otherwise. If the World Health Organization defines suicide as a “deliberate act”, a French consensus conference in 2000 led to focus not only on the suicidal act, but also on the crisis that makes the individual considers suicide as the ultimate solution to end a high psychological tension, life becaming unbearable.

Management of suicidal patients, focusing on the double physical and psychiatric assessment, is reviewed. Obviously, the role of each physician is clearly defined (diagnosis, care, prevention). However, a contradiction exists between the patient “who wishes to die” and the physician in his role as caregiver. But, most of the time, suicide is not a simple deliberate act but rather an act that occurs in a great feeling of ambivalence. Recognition and acceptance of such ambivalence are helpful to consider the question suicide.