Suicide decedents who receive psychiatric
treatment differ from those who do not in
demographics, diagnoses, and the type of
stressors they experience,7---9 suggesting that
there are likely to be important differences
between decedents with and without recorded
psychiatric symptoms. These findings have implications
for prevention and suggest the potential
need for universal strategies to reduce risk for
suicide in the group without documented psychiatric
symptoms. Additionally, the differences
between those with and without documented
psychiatric symptoms are likely to extend to
patterns of service use before death, with those
reporting more symptoms making greater contact
with the health care system and, thus,
potentially having a shorter time to death after
their last visit.