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Risk factors for suicide in melancholia A case‐record evaluation of 89 suicides and their controls
Author(s) -
Brådvi L.,
Berglund M.
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
acta psychiatrica scandinavica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.849
H-Index - 146
eISSN - 1600-0447
pISSN - 0001-690X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0447.1993.tb03377.x
Subject(s) - melancholia , depression (economics) , psychiatry , suicide prevention , poison control , psychology , injury prevention , suicide attempt , clinical psychology , personality , suicide methods , medicine , medical emergency , social psychology , cognition , suicide rates , economics , macroeconomics
Eighty‐nine inpatients with a primary severe depression and melancholia who had committed suicide were investigated. They were admitted to the Department of Psychiatry, Lund, Sweden between 1956–1969 and died before 1984. Matched controls were selected. Case records were evaluated at index admission to find suicidal risk factors in melancholia. Prospective ratings were compared. Women committing suicide had higher scores than their controls on the items unmarried, non‐compliance and suicide attempt but lower ratings on disharmonic childhood and non‐severe physical disease. Men committing suicide had higher scores on the items heredity for psychosis and a brittle or sensitive personality. For the latter item suicide was related to life‐weariness. Suicide attempt was related to acute onset and lack of psychomotor retardation. Two suicidal processes were proposed for men: one related to aggression and one not. Social factors seem less important in the prediction of suicide in melancholia than in depression in general.