Benson, Tony and Corry, Colette and O'Neill, Siobhan and Murphy, Sam and Bunting, Brendan (2018) Use of prescription medication by individuals who died by suicide in Northern Ireland. Archives of Suicide Research, 22, (1), pp. 139-152.
External website: http://www.nsrf.ie/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Bens...
OBJECTIVES/: To understand medication use prior to suicide in relation to patterns, polypharmacy and adherence.
METHODS: 1,371 suicide cases were coded and latent class analysis used to identify combinations of medications prescribed prior to death.
RESULTS: Two thirds had been prescribed medication with 30.7% prescribed three or more. Latent class analysis revealed three classes: Mixed medication use, primarily mental medication use, and baseline/low medication use. There are potentially high rates of medication non-adherence.
CONCLUSIONS: Both medication use but also non-adherence rates were high in this sample of individuals who died by suicide. Potential implications and areas for future research are discussed.
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