Effect of telephone contact on further suicide attempts in patients discharged from an emergency department: randomised controlled study.

The article describes a randomized controlled trial to determine the effect of contacting patients by telephone over one year, either one month or three months after discharge from an emergency department for deliberate self poisoning, as compared with the usual treatment. The study was carried out in with patients from 13 emergency departments in the north of France. The study measured deaths by suicide, reattempts, and losses at follow up after 13 months.