enabling more reliable and generalisable risk estimates.
Most previous studies of this issue were based on either hospital
discharge data9,10 or smaller case–control11 or communitybased
12–15 samples, and varied widely in adjustment for
confounding. Our overall risk estimates were higher than the
two- to fivefold increased risks of accidental death among
psychiatric patients reported in those studies, possibly due to
better ascertainment and reduced misclassification of mental
disorders. Our findings for accidental poisoning death were
broadly consistent with those of a large US cohort study that