Suicide attempts and psychiatric disorders in Edmonton

The relationship between lifetime histories of attempting suicide, psychiatric disorders and other social problems was assessed by examining data from a random sample of 3,258 household residents of Edmonton who were administered the Diagnostic Interview Schedule (DIS) and the Goldberg General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) by trained lay interviewers. While the overall lifetime rate for suicide attempt was 3.6%, of particular interest was the finding that a lifetime history of a psychiatric disorder was 2.6 times more frequent in those who had made a suicide attempt than in those who had not. Alcoholism, major depressive episode and antisocial personality disorder carried the highest lifetime prevalence rates for male attempters, whereas major depressive episode, alcoholism and phobic disorder were the most common disorders in female attempters. Having thoughts and feelings about wanting to die and committing suicide were strongly associated with having made a suicide attempt in both males and females. GHQ results indicated that in comparison to nonattempters those who attempted suicide were most likely to have high current symptom levels.