Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-mlc7c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T05:28:08.223Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Family History and Five-year Suicide Risk

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

William A. Scheftner ,
Michael A. Young ,
Jean Endicott ,
William Coryell ,
Louis Fogg ,
David C. Clark  and
Jan Fawcett
William A. Scheftner*
Affiliation:
Rush-Presbyterian – St Luke's Medical Center
Michael A. Young
Affiliation:
Rush-Presbyterian – St Luke's Medical Center
Jean Endicott
Affiliation:
Rush-Presbyterian – St Luke's Medical Center
William Coryell
Affiliation:
Rush-Presbyterian – St Luke's Medical Center
Louis Fogg
Affiliation:
Rush-Presbyterian – St Luke's Medical Center
David C. Clark
Affiliation:
Rush-Presbyterian – St Luke's Medical Center
Jan Fawcett
Affiliation:
Rush-Presbyterian – St Luke's Medical Center
*
∗1725 West Harrison – Suite 1072, Chicago, Illinois 60612, USA
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Family history was examined to determine whether suicide in index patients is associated with suicidal behaviour or mental disorder in their first-degree relatives. Twenty-seven suicides occurred within 5½ years among 955 affectively disordered probands. Among 5042 proband relatives aged 18 years and older, 44 had committed suicide prior to proband entry to the study; however, only one was the relative of a proband suicide. Only two of the relatives who committed suicide were themselves related. As to attempted suicide of relatives, neither the number of attempts nor the severity of attempt was predictive of suicide in probands. Comparison of diagnosis between groups of relatives showed more drug abuse among relatives of proband suicides; this appears to be related to drug abuse among the proband suicides themselves. In contrast to the clustering of suicides within biological families found in other research, these data do not support the use of family history as a clinically useful indicator of suicidal potential in affectively disordered probands.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 153 , Issue 6 , December 1988 , pp. 805 - 809
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1988 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Andreasen, N. C., Endicott, J., Spitzer, R. L. & Winokur, G. (1977) The family history method using diagnostic criteria. Archives of General Psychiatry, 34, 1229–1235.Google Scholar
Andreasen, N. C., Grove, W. M., Shapiro, R. W., Keller, M. B., Hirschfeld, R. M. A. & McDonald-Scott, P. (1981) Reliability of lifetime diagnosis: a multi-center collaborative perspective. Archives of General Psychiatry, 38, 400–405.Google Scholar
Andreasen, N. C., Rice, J., Endicott, J., Reich, T. & Coryell, W. (1986) The family history approach to diagnosis. Archives of General Psychiatry, 43, 421–429.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dahlgren, K. G. (1945) On Suicide and Attempted Suicide. Lund, Sweden: Lindstedts Univ-Bokhandel.Google Scholar
Egeland, J. A. & Sussex, J. N. (1985) Suicide and family loading for affective disorders. Journal of the American Medical Association, 254, 915–918.Google Scholar
Endicott, J. & Spitzer, R. L. (1978) A diagnostic interview: the schedule for affective disorders and schizophrenia. Archives of General Psychiatry, 35, 837–844.Google Scholar
Faberow, N. L. & Simon, M. D. (1969) Suicides in Los Angeles and Vienna – an intercultural study of two cities. Public Health Reports, 84, 389–402.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fawcett, J., Scheftner, W., Clark, D., Hedeker, D., Gibbons, R. & Coryell, W. (1987) Clinical predictors of suicide in patients with major affective disorders: a controlled, prospective study. American Journal of Psychiatry, 144, 35–40.Google Scholar
Haberlandt, W. (1967) Aportacion a la genetica del suicidio. Folia Clinica Internacional, 17, 319–322.Google Scholar
Katz, M. M., Secunda, S. K. & Hirschfeld, R. M. A. (1978) NIMH clinical research branch collaborative program on the psychobiology of depression. Archives of General Psychiatry, 36, 765–771.Google Scholar
Pitts, F. & Winokur, G. (1964) Affective disorder-III. Diagnostic correlates and incidence of suicide. Journal of Nervous and Mental Diseases, 139, 176–181.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Raskin, A., Schulterbrandt, J., Reatig, N. et al (1967) Factors of psychopathology in interview, ward behavior, and self-report ratings of hospitalized depressives. Journal of Consulting Psychology, 31, 270–278.Google Scholar
Roy, A. (1983) Family history of suicide. Archives of General Psychiatry, 40, 971–974.Google Scholar
Sainsbury, P. (1968) Suicide and depression. In Recent Developments in Affective Disorders: a symposium (eds Coppen, A. & Walk, A.). Ashford, England: Headley Brothers.Google Scholar
Schulsinger, F., kety, S. S., rosenthal, D. & wender, P. H. (1979) A family study of suicide. In Origins, Prevention and Treatment of Affective Disorders (eds Schou, M. & Stromgren, E.). New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Spitzer, R. L., Endicott, J. & Robbins, E. (1978) Research diagnostic criteria: rationale and reliability. Archives of General Psychiatry, 35, 773–782.Google Scholar
Tsuang, M. T. (1983) Risk of suicide in the relatives of schizophrenics, manics, depressives, and controls. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 44, 396–400.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.