Personality profile of depressive patients with a history of suicide attempts

To examine the dimensions and appropriate aspects of personality according to the five-factor model of personality of depressive patients with a suicide attempt history compared to depressive patients without a suicide attempt history and healthy persons.

Sample of 35 outpatients of both gender (< 60 years), with a diagnosis of ICD-10 non-psychotic recurrent depression in remission (F 33.4) and a group of healthy persons (N = 20) were included in the study. Patients were classified into a group of patients with a suicide attempt history (N = 15) and a group of patients without a suicide attempt history (N = 20). The exclusion criteria were determined. The NEO PI-R (240 self-report items) has been used to evaluate personality dimensions and aspects.

Both patient groups had a significantly higher score on the dimension of Neuroticism (p < 0.001), as well as significantly lower scores on the dimensions of Extroversion, (p < 0.001) Openness (p < 0.01) and Conscientiousness (p < 0.001; p < 0.01) compared with a group of healthy persons (ANOVA; Fisher's test-LSD).

Depressive patients with a suicide attempt history were significantly different in all personality domains except in Agreeableness from healthy persons (higher Neuroticism and lower Extroversion, Openness and Conscientiousness). There were no considerable differences in personality domains when major depressives with and without suicide attempt history were compared.