Behavioral and demographic predictors of suicide after traumatic spinal cord injury

Among people with spinal cord injuries, death from suicide is two to six times more prevalent than in the general population. To determine if individual characteristics and behaviors present during rehabilitation can identify high-risk individuals, records of 5,200 spinal cord injured patients admitted to the Rocky Mountain Regional Spinal Injury System were reviewed. Of 489 deaths, 9% were due to suicide. They were compared with a control group of equal size, matched on age, gender, and injury level. The two groups differed significantly on postinjury despondency; expressions of shame, apathy, and hopelessness; and preinjury family disruption (p less than .01). They also differed on alcohol abuse, active involvement in the injury, preinjury depression or despondency, destructive behavior, and one aspect of etiology (p less than .05). Discriminant analysis yielded a predictive model that correctly classified 81% of the suicide group and 79% of the control group. Many of the demographic predictors identified in this study are similar to those reported in the scientific literature. However, when combined with specific behavioral characteristics manifested during rehabilitation, they comprise an array of variables that permits development of a clinical model for predicting suicide among persons with spinal cord injuries.