Serious suicide attempts in affective patients

A retrospective study was carried out including all patients who in the previous 6 years had required admission to our hospital for medical or surgical reasons following attempted suicide (n = 257). Those diagnosed as having affective disorder (n = 96), according to DSM-IIIR criteria, were compared with the other non-affective suicide attempters (n = 161). Affective patients were significantly different in that they were older, more often women, married or widowed, usually used non-violent methods, made more serious attempts and presented a higher incidence of concomitant physical illness. Affective patients with a history of previous attempts were more likely to be recurrent unipolar depressives or first episode unipolars with a concurrent diagnosis of personality disorder. Most of the depressed patients made the attempt within the first 12 months of the episode. Patients who attempted suicide in the first 12 months of the depression were more likely to use non-violent methods and to receive a diagnosis of bipolar or unipolar recurrent disorder.