Risk factors and vulnerability to suicidal behavior

Abstract

Aggressive and suicidal behaviours are one of the most common psychiatric emergencies and, as every psychiatric disorder or human behaviour, have a multifactorial origin in which biological, psychological and social factors act togheter. These factors may have a protective value or may be risk factors and both concur in determining the individual's vulnerability to suicidal behaviour. With the aim of evaluating impact of some psychopathological dimensions on suicidal behaviour, we conducted a study on a sample of depressed psychiatric patients, comparing those with a history of suicide attempt it with those without suicidal tendencies. 170 adult outpatients consecutively enrolled, were the study subjects (mean age: 40.31±12.27; M:F 72/98). 108 patients had a lifetime suicide attempt in psychiatric history. Among suicide attempters, a significantly higher number of subjects were female sex, not married, unemployed and with a high educational status. Results also showed that patients with a suicide attempt had higher Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ) scores for emotional abuse, physical abuse and sexual abuse, and Brown Goodwin Life History of Aggression (BGLHA) scores in comparison to the control group and lower scores on the resilience scale. In order to evaluate the indipendent contribution of the selected measures, all risk factors were then entered in a logistic regression model, using the lifetime presence of a suicide attempt as the dependent variable.