Life event stress, psychosocial factors, suicide attempt and auto-accident proclivity

Abstract

This investigation had two major objectives. First, the study endeavoured to determine whether or not recent life event stress was associated with the aetiology of self-destructive behaviours, namely, suicide attempt and automobile accident. The second objective was to ascertain the significance of biographical factors and of social, psychological, psychiatric and physical environment conditions present near the time of the attempt or accident. The subjects were 150 suicide attempters, 100 drivers involved in automobile crashes and 200 controls randomly selected from the general population. Comprehensive information was gathered on the above factors and multivariate analyses applied to the data. Depression, neuroticism, social alienation, age, sex and excessive amounts of undesirable life events with undesirable outcomes were implicated as factors allowing expression of a specific vulnerability in the form of suicidal behaviour, but were not particularly associated with either the accident or control subjects.