This is a unique report about suicides and psychiatric drugs.
It gives detailed data about the treatment preceding death for around one third of all
persons who committed suicide in Sweden in 2007.
This data could have or should have been published by the responsible agency, the
National Board of Health and Welfare1
. It was not. The facts presented here were
gathered directly from data existing in the files and registries of the Board.
All cases where a person has committed suicide while undergoing health care, or up
to four weeks after their last health care visit, are to be reported to the National
Board of Health and Welfare for further investigation2
. Thanks to these reporting
requirements, unique information is available.
The data in this report has not previously been published by the authorities. Their
focus has been on form of health care given. The content of that health care has not
been analysed, even if the content reasonably would be the most important thing in
cases where the health care ended with the death of a person.
As the authorities have avoided a description and analysis of the actual content of
the care given, they have also avoided the important questions that otherwise should
have been raised. Thus the question has not been posed if the actual content of the
psychiatric treatment given was what gave the tragic end result – suicide. That
question is raised here.
An important part in the anal