Recent life events and attempted suicide

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Abstract

The contextual method was used to identify the incidence of recent life events and difficulties among 50 suicide attempters compared with a control group selected at random from the general population.

Suicide attempters experienced a significantly greater incidence of major life events, although for all life events irrespective of stressfulness, and for independent events the differences were not significant. The overall incidence of difficulties was also higher among suicide attempters.

Finally, the results suggest a vulnerability effect as far as three factors are concerned: early loss of/separation from one or both parents, absence of paid employment and living in a nuclear family.

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      Thirty-two studies assessed life stressors in association with suicide attempters. Starting first with studies assessing suicide attempters relative to non-psychiatric controls or mixed comparison group (n = 26), we found 23 studies with suicide attempts positive related to negative life events (Adams et al., 1994; Borges et al., 2008; Dubow et al., 1989; Dupéré et al., 2009; Garrison, Jackson, et al., 1991; Kaslow et al., 2002, 2005; King, Raskin, Gdowski, & Butkus, 1990; King et al., 2001; Nrugham, Holen, & Sund, 2010; Orbach, Stein, Palgi, & Asherov, 1996; Statham et al., 1998; Stein et al., 2010; Ullman & Brecklin, 2002; Vázquez, Panadero, & Rincón, 2010; Wan & Leung, 2010; Wilson, Stelzer, Bergman, & Kral, 1995; Wong, Stewart, Ho, Rao, & Lam, 2005), particularly interpersonal stressors (Baca-Garcia et al., 2007; Belik, Stein, Asmundson, & Sareen, 2009; Belik et al., 2007; De Vanna, Paterniti, Milievich, & Rigamonti, 1990; Fergusson et al., 2000). Conversely, three studies observed no association between stressors and suicide attempts (Kirmayer, Boothroyd, & Hodgins, 1998; McKeown et al., 1998), with one finding observed associations reaching non-significance after accounting for covariates (Wong et al., 2008).

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