Walking Out of a Hospital After Attempted Suicide. Commentary by James A. Bourgeois, OD, MD and Glen Xiong, MD | September 27, 2023

Walking Out of a Hospital After Attempted Suicide. Commentary by James A. Bourgeois, OD, MD and Glen Xiong, MD | September 27, 2023 https://psnet.ahrq.gov/web-mm/walking-out-hospital-after-attempted-suicide In this WebM&M Case a 42-year-old man with a history of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), alcohol use disorder and anxiety disorder, was seen in the emergency department (ED) after a high-risk suicide attempt by hanging. The patient was agitated and attempted to escape from the ED while on an involuntary psychiatric commitment. The ED staff treated him as a “routine boarder” awaiting an inpatient bed, with insufficiently robust behavioral monitoring. He eloped, then further complications resulted when law enforcement personnel were involved in his psychiatric emergency and when correctional mental health services were not available in a timely manner. The commentary discusses the importance of assessing for hypoxia-associated delirium and/or hippocampal damage/amnesia after any strangulation and the need for inpatient psychiatric hospitalization after emergency stabilization and management of delirium.