Comparison of coping mechanisms used by suicidal attempt patients, and those without suicidal history

Introduction: Care of suicidal attempted patient is a challenging task for all health care providers. Coping mechanisms reduce suicide probability by decreasing severity of stressors. Therefore, we aimed at investigating the coping mechanisms used by suicidal attempted patients referred to hospital. Methods: In this case-control study, cases (n= 50) were selected conveniently among patients referred to Sahid Faghihi hospital, and control group selected with same demographics as for cases. Both the groups were compared with respect to coping mechanisms. Data were analyzed using t-test by means of SPSS software. Results: Results showed that there were significant differences between case and control group in problem focused coping and emotion focused coping strategy (P<0.001). The controls had higher mean score in problem focused coping and the emotion focused coping. A significant difference between case and control groups in ineffective coping strategy was found. Ineffective coping strategy was used more frequently among cases. Conclusion: Our study suggest that health care providers should try to enhance the skills in problem focused coping among suicidal attempt patients as well as emotion focused coping while helping them to replace ineffective coping strategy with effective coping strategy