[Comparison of the characteristics of suicide attempters treated in general hospitals with and without prior suicide attempts].
OBJECTIVE
We compared the characteristics of persons who had made multiple versus single suicide attempts to determine whether or not these are two independent subgroups and, thus, should be provided with different preventive services.


METHODS
We administered a 2 - 3 hour interview that included a structured psychiatric examination to 325 individuals with suicide attempts who were treated at four city and county-level general hospitals.


RESULTS
The age, gender, years of education, marital status, work status, and family economic status of the 52 persons who had made more than one suicide attempt were similar to those of the 273 persons who had made a single attempt. But repeaters were less likely than non-repeaters to live in rural villages and to attempt suicide by ingesting agricultural poisons. Moreover, repeaters considered suicide prior to the attempt for a longer time, had a lower quality of life in the prior month, had a stronger suicidal intent, had more chronic life events, had a higher chronic stress score, and were more likely to have mental illness (P's all < 0.05).


CONCLUSIONS
Major differences in the characteristics of suicide attempters with and without a prior history of suicide attempts suggest that these are independent subgroups of attempters. These two types of attempted suicide require different preventive approaches.
Li
Xian-yun
XY
Beijing Suicide Research and Prevention Center, Beijing Huilongguan Hospital, Beijing 100096, China.
Xu
Dong
D
Phillips
Michael
M
Ji
Hui-yu
HY
Xu
Yong-chen
YC
He
Feng-sheng
FS
D000328:Adult; D002681:China; D005260:Female; D006769:Hospitals, General; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011788:Quality of Life; D012961:Sociology; D013406:Suicide, Attempted / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires