Abstract
Suicide is a global phenomenon which is a silent epidemic. Suicide attempts have far-fetched effects of community and public health. Impulsive or unplanned suicide attempts constitute a major part of the suicide attempts. A hospital based cross sectional study was carried out to assess the sociodemographic profile, level of hopelessness, level of suicide intent and stressful life events in impulsive suicide attempters and to assess the correlation of hopelessness, suicidal intent and stressful life event among them. Those admitted in a tertiary care center with any mode of suicide attempt were included in the study. A total of 150 patients were included after meeting inclusion criteria. Beck’s Hopelessness Scale and Beck’s Suicide Intent Scale were administered to assess hopelessness and suicide intent. Presumptive Stressful Life Events Scale was used to assess life events. Based on the score of 4 items in suicide intent scale, impulsivity score was calculated and those who scored <6 were considered as impulsive attempters. Statistical analysis was carried out using SPSS version 24. 61.3% (N=92) of the sample were impulsive attempters. Among them 63% were females (N =58) and 37% males (N =34). Most common psychiatric diagnosis was adjustment disorder (27.2%) followed by personality disorder (22.9%) and alcohol dependence syndrome (17.4%). Suicide intent was positively correlated with hopelessness, stressful life events score and number of stressful life events. A negative correlation was obtained for desirable life event score and suicide intent. The correlation of suicide intent score with undesirable life events was weak. Impulsive suicide attempts need more careful assessment and evaluation to prevent further suicide attempts and completed suicides. Accurate evaluation and management of impulsive trait or state may help in this.
Keywords: impulsive suicide attempts, hopelessness, suicide intent, stressful life events.
References
- World Health Organization. Preventing suicide. 2014;143(7):609–10.
- Radhakrishnan R, Andrade C. Suicide: an Indian perspective. Indian journal of psychiatry. 2012 Oct;54(4):304.
- Mid-year E. Chapter – 2 Suicides in India. 2010;(169):169–89.
- Platt S, Kerkhof A, Schmidtke A, Bjerke T, Crepet P, Querejeta I, et al. Parasuicide in Europe : the WHOIEURO multicentre study on parasuicide . I . Introduction and preliminary analysis for. 1992;97–104.
- Beck AT, Kovacs M, Weissman A. Hopelessness and Suicidal Behavior: An Overview. JAMA J Am Med Assoc. 1975;234(11):1146–9.
- Chandrasekaran R, Gnanaseelan J, Sahai A, Swaminathan RP, Perme B. Psychiatric and personality disorders in survivors following their first suicide attempt. Indian journal of psychiatry. 2003 Apr;45(2):45.
- Haw C, Hawton K, Houston K, Townsend E. Psychiatric and personality disorders in deliberate self-harm patients. Br J Psychiatry. 2001;178(JAN.):48–54.
- Harriss L, Hawton K. Suicidal intent in deliberate self-harm and the risk of suicide: The predictive power of the Suicide Intent Scale. J Affect Disord. 2005;86(2–3):225–33.
- Suominen K, Isometsä E, Ostamo A, Lönnqvist J. NoLevel of suicidal intent predicts overall mortality and suicide after attempted suicide: a 12-year follow-up study. BMC Psychiatry [Internet]. 2004;4(1):11. Available from: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-244X/4/11
- Latha KS, Bhat SM, D’Souza P. Suicide attempters in a general hospital unit in India: Their socio-demographic and clinical profile - Emphasis on cross-cultural aspects. Acta Psychiatr Scand. 1996;94(1):26–30.
- Kumar CTS, Mohan R, Ranjith G, Chandrasekaran R. Characteristics of high intent suicide attempters admitted to a general hospital. J Affect Disord. 2006;91(1):77–81.
- Spokas M, Wenzel A, Brown GK, Beck AT. Characteristics of individuals who make impulsive suicide attempts. J Affect Disord. 2012;136(3):1121–5.
- Diekstra RFW. The epidemiology of suicide and parasuicide. Arch Suicide Res. 1996;2(1):1–29.
- Menon V, Kattimani S, Shrivastava MK, Thazath HK. Clinical and socio-demographic correlates of suicidal intent among young adults: a study from South India. Crisis [Internet]. 2013 Jan 1 [cited 2016 Sep 27];34(4):282–8. Available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23685339
- Wei S, Liu L, Bi B, Li H, Hou J, Chen W, et al. Comparison of impulsive and nonimpulsive suicide attempt patients treated in the emergency departments of four general hospitals in Shenyang, China. Gen Hosp Psychiatry. 2013;35(2):186–91.
- Bagge CL, Littlefield AK, Lee HJ. Correlates of proximal premeditation among recently hospitalized suicide attempters. J Affect Disord. 2013;150(2):559–64.
- Kattimani S, Sarkar S, Rajkumar R, Menon V. Stressful life events, hopelessness, and coping strategies among impulsive suicide attempters. J Neurosci Rural Pract [Internet]. 2015;6(2):171. Available from: http://www.ruralneuropractice.com/text.asp?2015/6/2/171/153222
- Dumais A, Lesage AD, Alda M, Rouleau G, Dumont M, Chawky N, et al. Risk Factors for Suicide Completion in Major Depression : A ... Am J Psychiatry. 2005;162(11):2116–9.
- Rimkeviciene J, Ogorman J, De Leo D. Impulsive suicide attempts: A systematic literature review of definitions, characteristics and risk factors. Vol. 171, Journal of Affective Disorders. 2015. p. 93–104.
- Conner KR, Phillips MR, Meldrum S, Knox KL, Zhang Y, Yang G. Low-planned suicides in China. Psychol Med. 2005;35(8):1197–204.
Corresponding Author
Dr Varada Panikkath
Junior Resident, Department of Psychiatry, ACME, Pariyaram, Kannur, Kerala, 670502, India
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.18535/jmscr/v6i12.123
