Suicide and personality

Abstract

Objective: Suicide is one of the most important public health problems. Suicide, which needs to be discussed as a part of preventive mental health, has a wide range of causes. Temperament is genetic and structural behavioral characteristics that individuals have in their nature and cannot change for a whole-of-life. On the other hand, character is discussed as a concept, which is affected by education and environmental factors and can change in the course of time. In this study, we aimed to determine the discriminating personality characteristic of suicide attempters compared to healthy control subjects. Methods: Attempted suicide cases (n=69) who applied to Gaziantep University, Medicine Faculty, Emergency Service between May 2003 and August 2005 and who were asked to be assessed as psychiatrically were assessed according to DSM-IV diagnosis criterion and Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI-240 items), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), and Beck Hopelessness Scale (BHS) were employed to these cases and personality profiles were compared to control group including age and gender matched individuals who do not have any lifetime history of mental disorders (n=77). Results: Suicide attempters showed higher scores in harm avoidance, self-transcendence and lower scores in self-directedness, cooperativeness, and reward dependence when compared to controls. Beck hopelessness scale is positively correlated with harm avoidance score and reward dependence, persistence, self-directedness, cooperativeness scores negatively correlated in suicide group. In attempted suicide group, when we compared TCI scores within genders, responsibility scores was higher in men whereas, fear of uncertainty, virtuousness, and mercifulness subscores were higher in women. As for control group sentimentality, attachment and empathy subscores were higher in women. Conclusion: Temperament and character features of suicide attempters show significant differences compared with healthy control group. Determining personality profile among suicide attempters may be useful in employing different treatment approaches.