Temperament, character, and suicidality among Croatian war veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder.
BACKGROUND
The occurrence of suicidal thoughts and behaviors is rather frequent among war veterans, particularly those suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Understanding factors present within these individuals that increase suicide risk may inform prevention efforts. The present study aimed to determine whether the dimensions of temperament and character are associated with various aspects of suicidality among Croatian war veterans with PTSD.


METHODS
A sample of 72 Croatian male war veterans (mean age 52.33 years) diagnosed with PTSD was gathered at the National Center for Psychotrauma between May and October 2014. The participants completed the Temperament and Character Inventory - Revised (TCI-R) and the Suicidal Behaviors Questionnaire - Revised (SBQ-R).


RESULTS
Zero-order analyses revealed that temperament dimension Harm avoidance and character dimension Self-directedness were moderately associated with the total risk for suicide (i.e., the SBQ-R total score), while Persistence and Cooperativeness showed significant but weaker relations. Different dimensions of suicidality were associated with different personality traits. Harm Avoidance was shown to be significantly increased among the subgroup of war veterans with high suicidal risk.


CONCLUSIONS
Notwithstanding some limitations of this study, these findings could help extend our understanding of the elevated suicide risk in war veterans with PTSD. Detection of individuals displaying high Harm Avoidance and low Self-Directedness might facilitate prevention of suicidal behaviors in this population.
National Center for Psychotrauma, Department of Psychiatry, University Hospital Center Zagreb, Kišpatićeva 12, 10 000 Zagreb, Croatia, nenad_jaksic@yahoo.com.
Nenad
N
Jakšić
Branka
B
Aukst-Margetić
Darko
D
Marčinko
Lovorka
L
Brajković
Mladen
M
Lončar
Miro
M
Jakovljević
D000328:Adult; D001526:Behavioral Symptoms / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology; D017523:Croatia; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010551:Personality; D010555:Personality Inventory; D011316:Preventive Psychiatry / Q000379:methods; D018570:Risk Assessment; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D059020:Suicidal Ideation; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014728:Veterans / Q000523:psychology*; D014857:Warfare