Temperament and Character Traits of Personality in a Sample of Patients Admitted to the Emergency Unit with a Suicide Attempt

Abstract

Objective: In this study, we aimed to evaluate a sample of suicide attempters regarding temperament and character dimension scores and compare them with psychiatrically healthy individuals considering the influence of demographic risk factors. Methods: This study enrolled consecutive 50 patients (39 women, 11 men) with a mean age of 24.12 (SD ± 8.83) years who were admitted to the Emergency Department of Bezmialem Vakif University hospital for a recent self – or not self-reported suicide attempt. The control group consisted of age – and gendermatched 50 healthy subjects (34 women, 11 men) who had not a documented axis I psychiatric disorder or a previous suicide attempt with a mean age of 26.46 (SD ± 5.6). A semi-structured sociodemographic and clinical data form, Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV axis I disorders (SCID-I), and the Turkish version of Temperament and Character Inventory (Turkish-TCI) were administered to all participants. Following screening of all variables for the accuracy of data entry, missing values, and homoscedasticity, statistical analyses were performed by using SPSS version 23 for Windows. Results: A statistically significant difference was found between the patients and psychiatrically healthy controls mean values in terms of Impulsiveness and Disorderliness subscales of Novelty Seeking; Harm Avoidance and its all subscales, Sentimentality subscale of Reward Dependence; Self-Transcendence and its subscales of Self-Forgetfulness, Transpersonal Identification and Spiritual Acceptance scores were significantly higher in patients with suicide attempt compared to the control group. Patient group also exhibited significantly lower mean values of Self-Directedness, Persistence, and Cooperativeness scales compared to the psychiatrically healthy controls. Conclusions: In conclusion, our results suggested that patients with a history of suicide attempts have abnormal TCI profiles linked to higher harm avoidance, novelty seeking and self-transcendence scores and lower self-directedness and cooperativeness scores compared to psychiatrically healthy controls. Since personality traits play an important role in the prediction of suicidality, clinicians should be aware of personality–psychopathology relations for assessment and developing treatment strategies of the patients with suicide attempt.