[The Relationship of Suicide Attempts with Affective Temperament and Relevant Clinical Features in Patients with Mood Disorders].

OBJECTIVE In this study, patients with affective disorders with or without suicide attempts were examined according to whether their disorder was unipolar or bipolar. An analysis was made of their socio-demographic variables, comorbid psychiatric symptoms, and affective temperament dimensions in order to understand the effects of these variables on suicide risk. METHOD The study populations consisted of 246 inpatients with affective disorders who had been admitted to the Erenköy Research and Training Hospital for Mental and Neurological Disorders (93 patients with unipolar disorders, 153 with bipolar disorders). The TEMPS-A (Temperament Evaluation of Memphis, Pisa, Paris and San Diego Auto-questionnaire), the Beck Hopelessness Scale (BHS) and the Symptom Checklist-90-Revised (SCL-90-R) psychological symptom screening tests were applied to all patients. In order to determine the affective disorder diagnosis and to identify suicide attempts, a Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI) was performed during the first 48 hours of hospitalization. RESULTS The cyclothymic and anxious temperament dimensions measured using TEMPS-A, somatic symptoms obtained from a symptom checklist, and psychiatric disorders in the family were found to be good indicators of suicide attempts in patients with unipolar disorders in this study. An investigation of predictors of suicide attempts in bipolar patients showed that cyclothymic temperament pattern, paranoid symptoms, evaluated through symptom screening test and having a psychiatric disorder in the family are good predictors of a suicide attempt. CONCLUSION The findings are expected to guadiance to preventing suicide in patients with affective disorders. The inclusion in this study of patients with different index episodes of illness, including manic, depressive and mixed periods, can be accepted as a significant limitation of this study.