Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-lnqnp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T12:05:03.487Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Attempted Suicide in Young Women: Correlates of Lethality

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Robert D. Goldney
Robert D. Goldney*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, 5001, South Australia
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

One hundred and ten young women aged 18 to 30 years who had attempted suicide by drug overdose were divided into three groups on the basis of the physical threat to life of their suicide attempt. Young women whose suicide attempts resulted in the greatest risk to life were more often unmarried or not in a de facto relationship; reported little use of alcohol; had had recent contact with a psychiatrist; had taken more than 20 tablets or capsules, most often antidepressants; and had a high degree of suicidal intent and hopelessness. Furthermore, there were trends for them to be of high socio-economic status; to have had less history of violence, both used and sustained; to more often demonstrate schizoid personality traits; and to report less death anxiety.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 139 , Issue 5 , November 1981 , pp. 382 - 390
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1981 

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

Beck, A. T., Beck, R. & Kovacs, M. (1975a) Classification of suicidal behaviours: I. Quantifying intent and medical lethality. American Journal of Psychiatry, 132, 285–7.Google Scholar
Beck, A. T., Kovacs, M. & Weisman, A. (1975b) Hopelessness and suicidal behaviour: An overview. Journal of the American Medical Association, 234, 1146–9.Google Scholar
Beck, A. T., Schuyler, D. & Herman, I. (1974a) Development of suicidal intent scales. In The Prediction of Suicide (eds. Beck, A. T., Resnick, H. L. P. and Lettieri, D. J.). Bowie: Charles Press.Google Scholar
Beck, A. T., Weisman, A., Lester, D. & Trexler, L. (1974b) The measurement of pessimism: The hopelessness scale. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 42, 861–5.Google Scholar
Birtchnell, J. & Alarcon, J. (1971) Depression and attempted suicide: A study of 91 cases seen in a casualty department. British Journal of Psychiatry, 118, 289–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brandis, W. & Henderson, D. (1970) Social Class, Language and Communication. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Card, J. J. (1974) Lethality of suicidal methods and suicide risk: Two distinct concepts. Omega, 5, 37—45.Google Scholar
Doroff, D. (1969) Attempted and gestured suicide in adolescent girls. Dissertation Abstracts International, 27B, 2631.Google Scholar
Dorpat, T. L. & Boswell, J. W. (1963) An evaluation of suicidal intent in suicide attempts. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 4, 117–25.Google Scholar
Farberow, N. L. (1950) Personality patterns of suicidal mental hospital patients. Genetic Psychology Monographs, 42, 3—79.Google Scholar
Fraser, D. M. & Lawson, A. A. H. (1975) Acute poisoning in young women 1965—73. Health Bulletin, 33, 97—101.Google Scholar
Goldney, R. D. (1979) Attempted Suicide: Correlates of Lethality. M.D. Thesis, University of Adelaide.Google Scholar
Graham, J. D. P. & Hitchens, R. A. N. (1967) Acute poisoning and its prevention. British Journal of Preventive and Social Medicine, 21, 108–14.Google Scholar
Greer, S. & Lee, H. A. (1967) Subsequent progress of potentially lethal attempted suicides. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 43, 361–71.Google Scholar
Heyse, H., Kockott, G. & Fuerlein, W. (1969) The serious suicide attempt: A biometric investigation of 100 patients. In The Proceedings of the 5th International Conference of Suicide Prevention (ed. Fox, R.).Google Scholar
Kinsinger, J. R. (1971) The relationship between lethality of suicidal intentions and assertive, aggressive and hostile traits. Dissertation Abstracts International, 31 (12-B), 7600.Google Scholar
Kreitman, N. (1977) Parasiticide. London: Wiley and Sons.Google Scholar
Kreitman, N. (1979) Preventive enthusiasm and scientific caution. Paper presented at the 10th International Congress for Suicide Prevention and Crisis Intervention, Ottawa, 17—20 June.Google Scholar
Krupinski, J., Stoller, A. & Baikie, A. G. (1966) A social profile of Heyfield, Victoria. The Australian and New Zealand Journal of Sociology, 2, 110–15.Google Scholar
Leon, C. A., Perdomo, R., Martinez, F. & Caffrey, B. (1972) Psychological characteristics of frustrated suicides. Social Psychiatry, 7, 82–9.Google Scholar
McHugh, P. R. & Goodell, H. (1971) Suicidal behaviour: A distinction in patients with sedative poisoning seen in a general hospital. Archives of General Psychiatry, 25, 456–64.Google Scholar
Motto, J. A. (1965) Suicide attempts. A longitudinal view. Archives of General Psychiatry, 13, 516–20.Google Scholar
Murthy, V. N. (1969) Personality and the nature of suicidal attempts. British Journal of Psychiatry, 115, 791–5.Google Scholar
Nib, N. H., Hull, C H., Jenkins, J. G., Steinbrenner, K. & Bent, D. H. (1975) Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (S.P.S.S.), second edition. New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Pallis, D. J. & Barraclough, B. M. (1977) Seriousness of suicide attempt and future risk of suicide: A comment on Card's paper. Omega, 8, 141–9.Google Scholar
Pallis, D. J. & Birtchnell, J. (1976) Personality and suicidal history in psychiatric patients. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 32, 246–53.Google Scholar
Pallis, D. J. & Sainsbury, P. (1976) The value of assessing intent in attempted suicide. Psychological Medicine, 6, 487–92.Google Scholar
Pierce, D. W. (1977) Suicidal intent in self-injury. British Journal of Psychiatry, 130, 377–85.Google Scholar
Pilowsky, I., Levine, S. & Boulton, D. M. (1969) The classification of depression by numerical taxonomy. British Journal of Psychiatry, 115, 937–45.Google Scholar
Ringel, E. (1973) The pre-suicidal syndrome. Psychiatria Fennica., 209–11.Google Scholar
Rosen, D. H. (1970) The serious suicide attempt: Epidemiological and follow-up study of 886 patients. American Journal of Psychiatry, 127, 764–70.Google Scholar
Rosen, D. H. (1976) The serious suicide attempt. Five year follow-up study of 886 patients. Journal of the American Medical Association, 235, 2105–9.Google Scholar
Schmidt, E. H., O'Neal, P. & Robins, E. (1954) Evaluation of suicide attempts as guide to therapy. Journal of the American Medical Association, 155, 549–57.Google Scholar
Sendbuehler, J. M., Bland, A. & Nemeth, G. (1970) Attempted suicide. Diseases of the Nervous System, 31, 59—68.Google Scholar
Shneidman, E. S. (1976) Introduction: Current over-view of suicide. In Suicidology: Contemporary Developments (eds. Shneidman, E. S. and Greenblatt, M.). New York: Grune & Stratton.Google Scholar
Stengel, E. (1969) Suicide and Attempted Suicide. (Revised edition). Harmondsworth: Penguin Books Ltd.Google Scholar
Stengel, E., Cook, N. G. & Kreeger, I. (1958) Attempted Suicide: Its Social Significance and Effects. Maudsley Monograph No. 4. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Tarter, R., Templer, D. I. & Perley, R. L. (1974) Death anxiety in suicide attempters. Psychological Reports, 34, 895–7.Google Scholar
Templer, D. I. (1970) The construction and validation of a death anxiety scale. The Journal of General Psychology, 82, 165–77.Google Scholar
Weisman, A. D. & Worden, J. W. (1972) Risk-rescue rating in suicide assessment. Archives of General Psychiatry, 26, 553–60.Google Scholar
Weiss, J. M. A., Nunnez, N. & Schaie, K. W. (1961) Quantification of certain trends in attempted suicide. In The Proceedings of the Third World Congress of Psychiatry, pp 1236—1240. Montreal.Google Scholar
Weiss, J. M. A. & Scott, K. F. (1974) Suicide attempters ten years later. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 15, 165–71.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wetzel, R. D., Margulies, T., Davis, R. & Karam, E. (1980) Hopelessness, depression and suicide intent. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 41, 159–60.Google Scholar
Worden, J. W. (1976) Lethality factors and the suicide attempt. In Suicidology: Contemporary Developments (eds. Shneidman, E. S. and Greenblatt, M.). New York: Grune and Stratton.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.