Psychopathological Course of Depressives with and without a Suicide Attempt

The present study aims to explore the possible association between certain psychopathological characteristics and suicide inclination. Hostility and depression are important factors associated with suicide attempts. Suicide attempters (SA) are usually depressed; difficulty in regulating and expressing hostility is another characteristic common to suicide attempters (Weissman et al. 1973). Paykel and Dienelt (1971) and Weissman et al. (1973) compared depressed patients who had attempted suicide with those who had not and found that overtly expressed hostility was the most important distinguishing feature of the attempters. Whereas depressed SA and nonsuicide attempters (NSA) were equally depressed in the study of Weissman et al. (1973), van Praag and Plutchik (1985) found a significant postsuicidal decrease in depression compared with the level in the week prior to the suicide attempt. Such a drop in depression could not be found by the authors in patients who were also depressed but not suicidal.