Background
Suicide survivors are known to suffer serious psychological effects, but the families themselves are often isolated without the necessary support and psychiatric care. We started a outpatient clinic for suicide survivors at Fukuoka University Hospital from April 2021.
Methods
Patients who visited the outpatient clinic for suicide survivors during the two-year period from April 2021 to March 2023 were surveyed regarding their age, gender, relationship with the deceased, age of the deceased, means of the deceased's suicide, period since the deceased's suicide, pathway to the clinic, and whether psychotropic drugs were prescribed based on their medical records. The survey was approved by the Fukuoka University Medical Ethics Committee.
Results
Twenty-nine patients visited the outpatient clinic for suicide survivors during the above period. The ages of the patients seen were: 6 in their teens, 3 in their 20s, 4 in their 30s, 11 in their 50s and 5 in their 60s or older. Gender was male: 10 (34%) and female: 19 (66%). In terms of relationship to the deceased, from the patient's own perspective, 12 were children, 8 siblings, 4 parents, 3 spouses and 3 others (with overlap).
In terms of means of the deceased's suicide, suicide hanging was the most common method of death, with 18 (62%), followed by jumping with 4 (14%). In terms of time since suicide, 4 (14%) had been dead for less than a month, 8 (28%) for a month, 8 (28%) for 2-6 months, 6 (20%) for 7 months to a year, and 3 (10%) for over a year.

The ages of the deceased were: teens: 7 (24%), 20s: 7 (24%), 30s: 5 (17%), 40s: 6 (21%), over 50s: 2 (7%), unknown: 2 (7%). Sixteen (55%) were treated with psychotropic medication. In 14 cases (48%), more than one suicide survivor was seen in response to one suicide.

Discussion

Suicide survivors had a variety of needs, which often required tailored responses. In particular, there were differences in trends depending on the time: immediately after bereavement, psychiatric intervention was necessary to deal with psychiatric symptoms, mainly anxiety and insomnia. In addition, from a few months to a year after bereavement, support for practical life issues based on the mental and psychological impact was also necessary, and cooperation with other support organisations was considered to be important. Furthermore, psychological support for grief reactions was often required when patients were seen more than a year after bereavement.