Premium
MMPI inmate profiles: suicide completers, suicide attempters, and non‐suicidal controls
Author(s) -
Daigle Marc
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
behavioral sciences and the law
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.649
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1099-0798
pISSN - 0735-3936
DOI - 10.1002/bsl.618
Subject(s) - minnesota multiphasic personality inventory , psychiatry , suicide attempt , clinical psychology , psychology , suicide prevention , poison control , injury prevention , personality , medicine , medical emergency , social psychology
Results from the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) were compared for three groups of male inmates in federal penitentiaries: 47 suicide completers, 43 suicide attempters and, 123 non‐suicidal controls. Analyses show that the groups differed on all 10 clinical scales and on at least 8 after Bonferroni correction. Attempters obtained the highest scores on 4 of 8 scales; they also posted the highest scores on 3 others, but differences were significant only against non‐suicidal controls. Completers posted the highest score on only one scale (Mf), but the difference was significant only against non‐suicidal controls. All told, completers proved more similar to non‐suicidal controls than to attempters. Regarding profiles, completers are more strongly correlated with non‐suicidal controls ( r =0.95) than with attempters ( r =0.86); non‐suicidal controls are less strongly correlated with attempters ( r =0.88). The fact that attempters seem more pathological than the others can mislead clinicians screening for suicide risk. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.