title: A controlled study of suicide in middle-aged and older people: personality traits, age, and psychiatric disorders.
abstract: Personality traits were examined using the NEO Five-Factor Inventory-Revised in an Australian psychological autopsy study involving 259 suicide deaths and 181 sudden death controls aged 35 years and over. Interviews included the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV to determine the presence of psychiatric disorder. Personality traits of suicide deaths differed significantly from those of controls, scoring higher in the Neuroticism and Openness to Experience domains and lower on the Agreeableness and Extraversion domains. These findings varied with the presence of psychiatric disorder and by age. High Neuroticism scores were the most consistent finding in people who died by suicide, although these scores decreased in older suicides.
authors: School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia; Academic Department for Old Age Psychiatry, Prince of Wales Hospital, Randwick, NSW, Australia.
authors: Brian
authors: B
authors: Draper
authors: Kairi
authors: K
authors: Kõlves
authors: Diego
authors: D
authors: De Leo
authors: John
authors: J
authors: Snowdon
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001315:Australia; D005190:Family / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007406:Interview, Psychological; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis; D008875:Middle Aged; D010551:Personality; D036301:Qualitative Research; D013405:Suicide / Q000523:psychology*