Hopelessness and the tendency to commit suicide in the course of depressive disorders

In patients with major affective disorders, research has indicated that the extent of hopelessness is a promising variable for predicting suicide. In this prospective follow-up study, the predictive power of Beck's hopelessness scale (HS) was investigated in 61 depressive inpatients. The examination included the HS, the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), and personal interviews at admission, at discharge, and 1 year after discharge. There were eight suicide attempts and two suicides during the follow-up period. The sensitivity of the HS was high, i.e., a score of 8 or more correctly identified 90% of the eventual suicidal actions, but the percentage of false-positives was also high. The HS score at discharge differentiated between the groups with and without suicidal behavior during follow-up, as did the BDI. Several limitations of these findings are discussed.