Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-gtxcr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-19T16:01:44.369Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Estimating Suicide Risk among Attempted Suicides: I. the Development of New Clinical Scales

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

D. J. Pallis
Affiliation:
M.R.C. Clinical Psychiatry Unit, Graylingwell Hospital, Chichester, West Sussex, P019 4FQ
A. B. Levey
Affiliation:
M.R.C. Clinical Psychiatry Unit, Graylingwell Hospital, Chichester, West Sussex, P019 4FQ
J. S. Jenkins
Affiliation:
M.R.C. Clinical Psychiatry Unit, Graylingwell Hospital, Chichester, West Sussex, P019 4FQ
P. Sainsbury
Affiliation:
M.R.C. Clinical Psychiatry Unit, Graylingwell Hospital, Chichester, West Sussex, P019 4FQ
B. M. Barraclough
Affiliation:
University of Southampton

Summary

A discriminant function analysis was carried out to separate a sample of 75 suicides from a sample of 146 attempted suicides, on which comprehensive clinical and social data were recorded on an identical schedule. Two sets of discriminating items (with 18 and 6 variables) correctly classified 91 per cent and 83 per cent of the two samples in their respective groups. The results provide a basis for examining the usefulness of these variables as predictors of future suicide in people who have attempted suicide.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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

Barraclough, B. M., Bunch, J., Nelson, B. & Sainsbury, P. (1974) A hundred cases of suicide: clinical aspects. British Journal of Psychiatry, 125, 355–72.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Barraclough, B. M. & Pallis, D. J. (1975) Depression followed by suicide: A comparison of depressed suicides with living depressives. Psychological Medicine, 5, 5561.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Beck, A. T., Schuyler, D. & Herman, I. (1974) Development of Suicidal Intent Scales. In The Prediction of Suicide (eds. Beck, A. T. et al), pp 4556. Bowie, Maryland: The Charles Press 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.Google Scholar
Braught, G. & Wilson, N. (1970) Predictive utility of the revised suicide potential scale. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 34, 426.Google Scholar
Brown, T. R. & Sheran, T. J. (1972) Suicide prediction: A review. Life Threatening Behavior, 2, 2, 6798.Google Scholar
Buglass, D. & Horton, J. (1974) A scale for predicting subsequent suicidal behaviour. British Journal of Psychiatry, 124, 573–8.Google Scholar
Devries, A. G. (1968) Model for the prediction of suicidal behavior. Psychological Reports, 22, 3, 1285–302.Google Scholar
Diekstra, R. W. F. (1972) Social and interpersonal factors in suicidal behaviour. In The Cost of Crisis (eds. Diekstra, R. F. W. and Van de Loo, K. J. M.). Assen: Van Gorcum.Google Scholar
Farberow, N. L. & MacKinnon, D. R. (1974) A suicide prediction schedule for neuropsychiatric hospital patients. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 158, 408–19.Google Scholar
Garzotto, N., Buglass, D., Holding, T. A. & Kreitman, N. (1977) Aspects of suicide and parasuicide. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 56, 204–14.Google Scholar
Jacobson, S., Bagley, C. & Rehin, A. (1976) Clinical and social variables which differentiate suicide, open and accident verdicts. Psychological Medicine, 6, 417–21.Google Scholar
Kennedy, P. & Kreitman, N. (1973) An epidemiological survey of parasuicide (attempted suicide) in general practice. British Journal of Psychiatry, 123, 2334.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kessel, N. (1965) Self-poisoning. I and II. British Medical Journal, ii, 1265–70 and 1336–40.Google Scholar
Kreitman, N. (1976) Age and parasuicide (‘attempted suicide’). Psychological Medicine, 6, 113–21.Google Scholar
Lawson, A. A. H. & Mitchell, I. (1972) Patients with acute poisoning seen in a general medical unit (1960–71). British Medical Journal, iv, 153–6.Google Scholar
Lester, D. (1972) Why People Kill Themselves. Springfield, Illinois: Charles C. Thomas.Google Scholar
Lettieri, D. J. (1974) Suicidal death prediction scales. In The Prediction of Suicide (eds. Beck, A. T., Resnik, H. L. P. and Lettieri, D. J.). Bowie, Maryland: The Charles Press.Google Scholar
MacKinnon, D. R. & Farberow, N. L. (1976) An assessment of the utility of suicide prediction. Suicide and Life Threatening Behavior, 6, 2, 8691.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Motto, J. A. (1979) The psychopathology of direct self-destruction: A clinical model approach. In Psychopathology of Direct and Indirect Self-Destruction (ed. by Achté, K. and Lönngvist, J.). Psychiatria Fennica Supplementum 1978, pp 4757.Google Scholar
Motto, J. A. & Heilbron, D. C. (1976) Development and validation of scales for estimation of suicide risk. In Suicidology, Contemporary Developments (ed. Shneidman, E. S.), pp 169–99. New York: Grune and Stratton.Google Scholar
Newson-Smith, J. G. B. & Hirsch, S. R. (1979) Psychiatric symptoms in self-poisoning patients. Psychological Medicine, 9, 493500.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pallis, D. J. (1976) Assessing suicide risk in attempted suicides: efficiency of the available scales. International Research Communication System, Medical Science, 4, 266.Google Scholar
Pallis, D. J. & Sainsbury, P. (1976) The value of assessing intent in attempted suicides. Psychological Medicine, 6, 487–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Poldinger, W. J. (1968) Die Abschatzung der Suizidalität. Bern and Stuttgart: Hans Hueber.Google Scholar
Rao, C. R. (1952) Advanced Statistical Methods. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Resnick, J. H. & Kendra, J. M. (1973) Predictive value of the ‘Scale for Assessing Suicide Risk’ (SASR) with hospitalized psychiatric patients. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 29, 187–90.3.0.CO;2-U>CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rosen, D. H. (1954) Detection of suicidal patients: An example of some limitations in the prediction of infrequent events. Journal of Consulting Psychology, 18, 397403.Google Scholar
Slater, E. & Roth, M. (1969) Clinical Psychiatry, 3rd edition. London: Baillière, Tindall and Cassell Google Scholar
Spiegel, D. E. & Neuringer, C. (1963) Role of dread in suicidal behavior. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 66, 507–11.Google Scholar
Stengel, E. (1972) A survey of follow-up examinations of attempted suicides. In Suicide and Attempted Suicide (eds. Waldenstrom, J., Barsson, T. and Ljungstedt, N.). Stockholm: Nordiska Bokhadelns Forlag.Google Scholar
Tuckman, J. & Youngman, W. F. (1968) A scale for assessing suicide risk of attempted suicides. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 24, 1719.Google Scholar
Whitehead, P. C., Johnson, F. G. & Ferrence, R. (1973) Measuring the incidence of self-injury: Some methodological and design considerations. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 43, 142–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.