Suicide: Can we predict it?

doi:10.1016/0010-440X(87)90030-7

Comprehensive Psychiatry

Volume 28, Issue 3, May–June 1987, Pages 236-241

https://doi.org/10.1016/0010-440X(87)90030-7 Get rights and content

Abstract

Prediction of suicide is the most important factor for suicide prevention and treatment. Methodological issues of suicide prediction studies are reviewed as well as demographic, clinical and biological predictors of suicide. These data suggest that suicide cannot be reliably predicted.

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Cited by (13)

Firearm possession and violent death: A critical review
2013, Aggression and Violent Behavior
Citation Excerpt :
Suicide rates increase during economic crises (e.g., Reeves et al., 2012) and particularly increases in rates of unemployment are associated with increased suicide rates (e.g., Stuckler et al., 2009). Other important risk factors for suicide are depression and alcohol problems (Balon, 1987; Miret, Ayuso-Mateos, Sanchez-Moreno, & Vieta, 2013). Unless researchers control for these risk factors, they run the risk that the effect of gun possession on suicide rates will be swamped by these other effects.
This article critically reviews the empirical research on the association of firearm possession with suicide and homicide. Both suicide and homicide reflect intentional behavior with the goal of killing oneself or another person. Firearms provide merely a means of reaching this goal. The possession of a firearm can, therefore, not be a primary cause of either suicide or homicide. However, since a defining characteristic of both suicide and homicide is the success of killing, and since guns are more effective means for reaching this goal than poison or other weapons, the rate of firearm possession can be expected to be positively related to overall rates of suicide and homicide. This prediction has been tested with individual-level as well as macro-level studies. Individual-level studies, which typically use case–control designs, allow a better control than macro-level studies of the cultural, demographic, and economic determinants of suicide and homicide. In macro-level studies, the potential impact of gun possession on overall rates is likely to be confounded by the factors that motivate people to commit suicide or homicide. Despite these methodological limitations, the research reviewed in this article supports the assumption that easy access to firearms increases the risk of dying from violent causes. With very few exception, studies found gun ownership positively related to gun-related suicides and homicides. Furthermore, there is evidence that guns do not merely serve as substitutes for other means of killing, but increase the overall rates of suicide and homicide.
Suicide in a spinal cord injured population: Its relation to functional status
1998, Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
Objective: To determine the relation between functional status and risk of suicide among individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI).
Design: A follow-up study of all individuals who survived a traumatic SCI during the period from 1953 through 1990.
Setting: An SCI center in eastern Denmark.
Subjects: A total of 888 individuals with SCI, including 236 who died, 23 of whom committed suicide.
Main Outcome Measures: Standardized Mortality Ratios (SMRs) of suicides among individuals with SCI.
Results: A 100% follow-up was established January 1, 1993. The total suicide rate among individuals with SCI was nearly five times higher than expected in the general population and lower for men than for women. The suicide rate doubled from an early inclusion period (1953–1971) to a later period (1972–1990). An unexpected finding was that the suicide rate in the group of marginally disabled persons was nearly twice as high as the group of functionally complete tetraplegic individuals.
Conclusion: Given the high frequency of suicide, there is a need for increased awareness by rehabilitation staff and general practitioners regarding depression and psychological adjustment difficulties. Such conditions should be given special attention during rehabilitation and follow-up, especially among women with SCI and the marginally disabled.
Personality and suicidal behavior in depressed patients
1989, Comprehensive Psychiatry
The relationship between personality and suicidal behavior was evaluated in 53 patients with primary major depressive disorder. Mean borderline personality scale scores on the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory (MCMI) differed between suicide attempters and non-attempters. The frequency of personality disorder diagnoses, especially borderline personality disorder, was not higher in the suicide attempters. Clinical and theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.
Identifying and accommodating the needs of mentally ill people in gaols and prisons
2002, Psychiatry, Psychology and Law
The Failure to Construct an MMPI-2-Based Self-Mutilative Behavior Scale
1995, International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology
Suicide and mental disorders
1995, Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences

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Suicide: Can we predict it?

Abstract

Compr Psychiatry

J Affective Disord

First suicide note?

Br Med J

History in the study of suicide

Psychol Med

Observations on nosological issues in the classification of suicidal behavior

Suicide

Classifications of suicidal phenomena

Bull Suicidology

Effects of foreknowledge of death in the assessment from case history material of intent to die

J Consult Clin Psychol

The prediciton of suicide: Why is it so difficult?

Am J Psychother

Prediction of suicide: A prospective study of suicides and controls among psychiatric patients

Acta Psychiatr Scand

Predictive scales for parasuicide repetition: Further results

Acta Psychiatr Scand

A comparison of suicidal thinkers and attempters: Interim findings

Dis Nerv Syst

Suicide rates among public mental health patients

Acta Psychiatr Scand

Attempted suicide and suicide in functional psychoses

Acta Psychiatr Scand

Suicide among the elderly: Levels and trends

Am J Orthopsychiatry

The serious suicide attempt: Epidemiological and follow-up study of 886 patients

Am J Psychiatry

The Iowa record-linkage study. I. Suicides and accidental deaths among psychiatric patients

Arch Gen Psychiatry

Risk factors for suicide in psychiatric patients

Arch Gen Psychiatry

Suicide in psychiatric practice population

J Clin Psychiatry

Demographic versus clinical predictors of suicidal behavior: A look at some issues

Birthday blues: The association of birthday with self-inflicted death in the elderly

Acta Psychiatr Scand

Hopelessness and eventual suicide: A 10-year prospective study of patients hospitalized with suicidal ideation

Am J Psychiatry