Personality, smoking and suicide: a prospective study

From a random sample of Swiss army conscripts, 28 cases of suicide, 36 deaths due to accident and 2754 controls were analyzed for social and psychological features, in particular for personality factors at age 19 years; further information was collected during a follow-up study to age 36 years. Among the subjects who committed suicide low school achievement, smoking, and psychiatric disorders were overrepresented. In both groups of deaths aggressiveness (excitability, reactive aggression, spontaneous aggression) and depression scores were higher than among controls. The findings are compatible with those of other studies and biological theories about the role of impulsiveness in suicide.