Suicidal behaviour and aggression in psychiatric inpatients

Theoretically, suicidal behaviour and aggression are usually said to be correlated. Such relationship is, however, not reliably supported by clinical and experimental evidence. It has been more frequently found when suicidal psychiatric patients are compared with healthy non-suicidal controls rather than when the comparison is done within the group of the psychiatric patients. Therefore we decided to investigate whether such relationship exists in a group with a high risk of suicidal behaviour--psychiatric male inpatients.

113 male inpatients, mostly with schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders and mood disorders were studied in the first five days after their admission. Using a structured clinical interview and formal rating scales data were collected about the number of suicide attempts and aggressive acts committed throughout their lives, current suicide ideation and suicide planning behaviour, alcohol use, depression and outwardly directed aggression. Correlation analysis and chi-square test were used to analyze the data.

There is no significant relation between current aggressivity and current suicide risk, as well as between the lifetime aggression and the lifetime suicide behaviour. The current suicide ideation and suicide planning behaviour are related to previous suicidal behaviour and to the current depression level. The lifetime aggression is related to the alcohol use.

The results of our study do not define aggression as a suicide risk factor within the group of psychiatric inpatients. This findings could benefit the evaluation of the suicidal risk in psychiatric clinic.