Skip to main content
Log in

Attempted suicide in those with personality disorders

A Comparison of Depressed and Unsocialized Suicide Attempters

  • Published:
European archives of psychiatry and neurological sciences Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Summary

From a sample of 499 patients admitted to hospitals for suicide attempts, a subsample of 182 suicide attempters who described histories of illicit activities or who were diagnosed with DSM-II antisocial, drug or alcohol personality disorders were compared with another sample of 109 suicide attempters diagnosed as having depressive disorders. The former group of unsocialized attempters obtained similar depression inventory scores as the diagnosed depressive attempters. However, the index attempts of the unsocialized group were made with less suicidal intent than those of the diagnosed depressive patients, and they made more prior suicide attempts than the diagnosed depressive patients.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • American Psychiatric Association (1968) Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, 2nd edn. Washington, DC

  • American Psychiatric Association (1980) Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, 3rd edn. Washington, DC

  • Beck AT, Ward CH, Mendelson M, Mock J, Erbaugh J (1961) An inventory for measuring depression. Arch Gen Psychiatry 4:561–571

    Google Scholar 

  • Beck AT, Beck R, Kovacs M (1975) Classification of suicidal behaviors. Am J Psychiatry 132:285–287

    Google Scholar 

  • Beck AT, Weissman A, Lester D, Trexler L (1974a) The measurement of pessimism. J Consult Clin Psychol 42:861–865

    Google Scholar 

  • Beck AT, Herman I, Schuyler D (1974b) Development of suicidal intent scales. In: Beck AT, Resnick HLP, Lettieri D (eds) The prediction of suicide. Charles Press, New York, pp 45–56

    Google Scholar 

  • Beck AT, Kovacs M, Weissman A (1979) Assessment of suicidal intentions. J Consult Clin Psychol 47:343–352

    Google Scholar 

  • Durkheim E (1951) Suicide. Free Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Hawton K (1987) Assessment of suicidal risk. Br J Psychiatry 150:145–153

    Google Scholar 

  • Lester D (1983) Why people kill themselves, 2nd edn. Thomas, Springfield

    Google Scholar 

  • Lester D (1987) Suicide as a learned behavior. Thomas, Springfield

    Google Scholar 

  • Overstone IMK, Kreitman N (1974) Two syndromes of suicide. Br J Psychiatry 124:336–345

    Google Scholar 

  • Pablo RY, Lamarre CJ (1986) Parasuicides in a general hospital psychiatric unit. Gen Hosp Psychiatry 8:279–289

    Google Scholar 

  • Paitich D, Crawford G (1976) A multiple-choice version of the WAIS vocabulary scale. Clarke Institute of Psychiatry, Toronto

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Lester, D., Beck, A.T. & Steer, R.A. Attempted suicide in those with personality disorders. Eur Arch Psychiatr Neurol Sci 239, 109–112 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01759583

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01759583

Key words

Navigation