Actual Suicide Attempts Research Articles

Aborted suicide attempts: a new classification of suicidal behavior.

With the goal of ultimately finding early suicide predictors, the authors undertook a study of aborted suicide attempts. They defined such an attempt as an event in which an individual comes close to attempting suicide but does not complete the act and thus sustains no injury. The authors interviewed a random sample of 135 adult psychiatric inpatients concerning their past suicidal behavior. Using standardized scales, they assessed suicidal intent for aborted suicide attempts and actual suicide attempts, as well as degree of injury for actual attempts. Over half of the 135 subjects reported making at least one aborted suicide attempt. Aside from younger age, no demographic characteristics were associated with aborted attempts. Aborted attempts were reported more often in subjects with a diagnosis of borderline personality disorder than in subjects with other diagnoses. Intent scores for aborted attempts were comparable to those for actual suicide attempts. Subjects who had made an aborted attempt were nearly twice as likely to have made an actual suicide attempt as subjects with no aborted attempts. Among subjects with both aborted and actual attempts, the first aborted attempt preceded the first actual attempt approximately half the time. Aborted suicide attempts were reported commonly by psychiatric inpatients, had a similar level of intent as actual attempts, and were highly associated with actual attempts. Thus, clinicians should specifically ask patients about aborted attempts as a part of the suicide history. Further study is needed to examine the association between aborted suicide attempts and suicide.

The prevalence of aborted suicide attempts among psychiatric in-patients.

We report the prevalence of aborted suicide attempts in which the essential characteristics are (i) intent to kill oneself (ii) a change of mind before making an actual suicide attempt and (iii) the absence of physical injury. The lifetime history of aborted suicide attempts was assessed by semi-structured interview of 733 patients, aged 18-59 years, who were consecutively admitted to a psychiatric hospital. In the study group, 46% of subjects had made a suicide attempt and 29% had made at least one aborted attempt during their lifetime. Subjects who had made aborted attempts were more likely to have made actual attempts. Approximately 11% of the subjects in the study group had a history of aborted attempts of potential high lethality, such as going to a height in order to jump, or holding a gun to the head. There were no major demographic differences between those with and without a history of aborted attempts. However, among those with no prior history of actual attempts, subjects with depression and a family history of suicide were more than twice as likely as those without such a history to have made an aborted attempt. Aborted suicide attempts are a common suicidal behaviour among psychiatric in-patients. Whether they predict actual attempts or suicide warrants prospective investigation.

Childhood abuse and suicidality in obstetrics patients in a hospital-based urban prenatal clinic

This study reports findings from a chart review examining the relationship between self-report of a history of childhood abuse and the emergence of suicidal ideation in pregnancy in a group of patients referred for psychiatric evaluation. The relationship between history of childhood abuse and actual suicide attempts prior to the current pregnancy was also investigated. Results revealed that women reporting a history of childhood sexual abuse, physical abuse, or both were significantly more likely than those not reporting a history of abuse to evidence suicidal ideation during the pregnancy. Additionally, those reporting a history of sexual abuse or both physical and sexual abuse were more likely than those not reporting such a history to have made a suicide attempt in the past at some point prior to the current pregnancy. Interpretations and potential implications of these findings for clinical work with psychiatrically at-risk pregnant women are discussed.

Suicide Attempts Among Adolescent Drug Users

Substance use has been identified as a significant risk factor in nonfatal and fatal suicides during adolescence. A comprehensive questionnaire on patterns of alcohol and other drug use, early childhood and nuclear family psychological and behavioral history, and previous suicidal attempts was completed by 298 (88%) of 340 outpatient adolescent substance abusers in three geographic regions east of the Mississippi River. An abbreviated Beck Depression Inventory was included to ascertain current symptoms of depressed mood. Adolescents admitting to a previous suicide attempt (30%) were compared with two age- and sex-matched samples. Substance abusers were three times as likely as a normative population of non-drug-using age- and sex-matched peers to make a suicide attempt. Thirty-three percent of attempts reported occurred prior to high school. Both the wish to hurt oneself and actual suicide attempts were found to increase significantly after the initiation of substance use. Forty percent used drugs within 8 hours before the suicide attempt, and 23% of attempters reported that their families continued to have a firearm with ammunition in the home following the suicide attempt. Adolescent substance abusers who had attempted suicide were significantly more likely than a matched group of nonattempters in the same drug treatment facility to: (1) complain of usually feeling "blue" or sad (depressed affect) during early childhood, (2) identify important childhood behavioral problems, (3) identify long-standing self-perceived impaired self-concept, and (4) identify serious parental problems, such as chronic depression or alcoholism. Self-perceived chronic loneliness in childhood appears to be a singularly important initiator of adolescent drug use and subsequent suicide attempts among drug abusers.

Prevalence of suicidal feelings in a sample of non-consulting medical students.

Five hundred and sixteen final-year non-consulting medical students were studied as to the occurrence of different degrees of suicidal feelings. A total of 12.6% reported some degree of suicidal feelings during the past year. Responses ranged along a continuum such that subjects reporting the more intense feelings also reported the less intense feelings. In 5.6% of the subjects the maximum intensity was only a feeling that life was not worthwhile, 4% had thought of taking their life, 0.9% had seriously considered suicide or made plans, and 0.4% had made an actual suicide attempt. Subjects experiencing suicidal feelings in the past year had had more minor psychiatric symptoms, particularly of depression, and had experienced more stressful events and somatic illness. In these respects they resembled the description of completed suicide.

A computer-based system for identifying suicide attemptors

The following is a report of a collaborative study done by members of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Departments of Industrial Engineering and Psychiatry. The purpose of the study was to reduce the number of deaths due to suicide by providing the clinician with a well-defined set of characteristics with which to evaluate an individual thinking of suicide. Specifically, our model provides an estimate of the chance of death if a suicide attempt is made. Two models were developed to make this estimate. One model was Bayesian and the other was a linear regression model. The two models were evaluated by comparing the predictions made by the models and those made by two groups of clinicians who also predicted the outcome of 32 actual suicide attempts. Among other things, the study suggested that on the average both models were better able to predict the lethality of a suicide attempt than were the clinicians.

Drug abuse and suicide.

This paper examines the relationship between drug abuse and suicide. It attempts to assess the extent of suicidal thoughts or behaviors among a group of drug abusers. The research examines variables related to self-destructive or self-endangering behaviors, such as accidental overdoses, arrests for driving under the influence, and auto accidents in which the subject was the driver. These data were examined in relation to reports of suicidal thoughts and actual suicide attempts. The results indicate a suicide attempt rate at least 12 times greater than expected for the general population. The results also indicate significant correlations between suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts, suicidal thoughts and nonsuicidal overdoses, and arrests for driving under the influece of drugs or alcohol and nonsuicidal overdoses. The implications of these results along with the role of depression as discussed.

Rescuers and the Rescued

ABSTRACT: There is a fairly widespread but unverified belief that persons working on certain taboo areas may be similar to the population they serve and drawn to such work by their own personal problems in these areas. Two groups, 51 suicide prevention volunteers and 31 suicide attempters, were compared with respect to demographic characteristics and for psychological attitudes and experiences pertaining to suicide, death, and mental status by means of a death questionnaire developed by Shneidman. Comparative analysis revealed substantial differences between volunteers and clients. Demographically, the volunteers were older, better educated, more affluent, and contained a greater proportion of Protestants. Psychologically, the volunteers were distinctly different in regard to suicide. In contrast to their clients, the volunteers reported greater emotional stability, much less fantasy about suicide, almost no actual suicide attempts, and a disinclination to consider suicide as a justifiable problem‐solving option.

Hypnosis as a deterrent to suicide.

Abstract A method that has been found successful in temporarily deterring suicide attempts is to give the post-hypnotic suggestion that the patient will not be able to carry out an actual suicide attempt until he has discussed it with the psychiatrist, in advance of the attempt, and in the psychiatrist's office, and further, that the patient will agree to enter a trance at any time the psychiatrist insists, even though the patient may not wish to do so. The rationale for this approach is that, (a) A temporary deterrent is often all that is necessary to prevent a given suicide attempt, (b) Hypnosis can have only a temporary deterring effect on suicide, (c) A direct and permanent confrontation that he can never commit suicide would be bound to fail and would not promote therapy of the personality, and (d) It gives the patient an alternative to suicide.

Psychiatric emergency related to the menstrual cycle.

The differential effect of the menstrual cycle on psychiatric emergencies was assessed by evaluating a representative female sample of emergency room psychiatric patients intermittently over a one-year period. The results showed that the menstrual cycle has a differential effect that is manifested by the type of psychiatric emergencies the women appear with; specifically, nonpsychotic menstruating women with more severe past medical and gvnecologic histories who have more sexual and marital problems appear to be more susceptible to a premenstrual psychiatric emergency characterized by hostility, suicidal ideation, and an actual suicide attempt.