Temperament and character personality profile in relation to suicide attempts in patients with schizophrenia

• Published in: Comprehensive psychiatry Vol. 53; no. 8; pp. 1130 - 1136
• Main Authors: Albayrak, Yakup, Ekinci, Okan, Çayköylü, Ali
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY Elsevier Inc 01-11-2012; Elsevier; Elsevier Limited
• Subjects: Adult; Adult and adolescent clinical studies; Behavior; Biological and medical sciences; Character; Cross-Sectional Studies; Female; Harm Reduction; Humans; Logistic Models; Male; Medical sciences; Mental disorders; Middle Aged; Mortality; Motivation; Personality; Personality Inventory - statistics & numerical data; Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychometrics - statistics & numerical data; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Psychoses; Risk Factors; Schizophrenia; Schizophrenia - diagnosis; Schizophrenic Psychology; Suicide; Suicide, Attempted - psychology; Suicides & suicide attempts; Temperament; Values; United States > US; Turkey; Psychosis; Human; Schizophrenia; Personality; Temperament; Suicide attempt
• ISSN: 0010-440X; 1532-8384
• DOI: 10.1016/j.comppsych.2012.04.007

Abstract Introduction Schizophrenia is associated with a significant risk of suicide, and suicide still remains one of the main causes of death in schizophrenic patients. Beside classic risk factors for suicidality, temperament and character traits have been researched and considered as risk factors for suicidal behavior in recent years. Method Subjects were 94 patients with schizophrenia who were under treatment. All patients were in a stable phase of the illness. Patients with lifetime suicide attempt (n = 46) and without suicidal attempt (n = 48) were compared with each other in terms of temperament and character traits by using the Temperament and Character Inventory. Results Harm avoidance and persistence scores were higher in suicidal schizophrenic patients compared with nonsuicidal schizophrenic patients. The scores of self-directedness and cooperativeness were lower in suicidal schizophrenic patients compared with nonsuicidal schizophrenic patients. These 4 variables remained significant predictors of lifetime suicidal attempts in a logistic regression model. Conclusion To the best of our knowledge, the present study is the first that specifically compares schizophrenic patients with and without suicidal behavior by the Cloninger temperament and character model. Our data indicate that schizophrenic patients will show a greater risk for suicide according to certain personality configurations. However, to establish causal relationships between personality and suicidality in schizophrenia, longitudinal studies are warranted within a multifactorial interactive framework of biologic and clinical variables.