Extending opportunities for prevention of suicide

This project will link dispensing data to the Welsh Suicide Information Database (SID-Cymru) to examine patterns of prescription and dispensing among people who died by suicide. It builds on a previous project examining health service utilisation before death.

Key questions

This project aims to answer two overarching research questions:

1. How many different medications do suicide decedents typically take and what health conditions are these intended to treat? What proportion of total suicide deaths is represented by people taking psychotropic medications in relation to controls?
2. Do suicide decedents change their usual pattern of filling prescriptions in the period right before death? Are filling patterns less frequent or more erratic in the year of death? Filling patterns will be compared to those of live controls who are likewise on medications.

Project leads

Professor Ann John and Marcos del Pozo Banos, Swansea University (ADR Wales).

This project is funded by ADR Wales via its core grant from the Economic & Social Research Council (ESRC) as an ADR UK partner.