Is the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale a Useful Tool for Evaluating Suicide Patients in Emergency Department? A Cross-sectional Study

Abstract

Aim: Identifying patients presenting with a suicide attempt, determining risk groups, and taking appropriate precautions for risky patients can prevent injuries and death. This study determines the usability and possible benefits of the hospital anxiety and depression scale (HADS) in patients presenting to the emergency department (ED) with a suicide attempt. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional observational survey was conducted in the ED of a tertiary hospital. One hundred and two patients were included in the study. Cronbach's alpha coefficient was used in the reliability analysis and determined as >0.7. Results: There was a significant difference between patients who had a previous suicide attempt in terms of HADS-anxiety (HAD-A) and HADS depression (HAD-D) score, and HADS total scores compared to patients who had not attempted suicide before (p=0,043, p=0.031, p=0.034, respectively). HADS is a beneficial scale that can be used by emergency physicians for patients who are admitted to the ED with a suicide attempt. HADS detected that patients who attempted suicide had a significant level of anxiety and depression. Conclusion: Besides, we concluded that patients who presented to the ED with repeated suicide attempts were in the higher risk group for anxiety and depression.