Clinical profiles of serious suicide attempters consecutively admitted to a university-based hospital: a cluster analysis study
OBJECTIVE: To verify the presence of different groups of medically serious suicide attempters who had more clinical or surgical seriousness and required admission to a general hospital. METHODS: 121 patients admitted consecutively were assessed. A questionnaire containing items on the patient characteristics and psychometric scales to assess the suicidal intent and lethality were used. A cluster analysis was performed using the K-means method. RESULTS: Three groups were identified: 1) 43 subjects (mostly female) characterized by self-poisoning with medication and low suicidal intent, with highly impulsive suicide attempts; 2) 53 subjects (mostly males) who ingested pesticides and presented both moderate degrees of lethality and suicidal intent; 3) 17 subjects (predominantly males) who used more violent methods and presented high levels of lethality and suicidal intent. CONCLUSIONS: Grouped data of these inpatients could be misleading for follow-up research purposes as our findings indicate that there are relatively distinct clinical profiles among suicide attempters admitted to a general hospital.
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Digital revista |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Associação Brasileira de Psiquiatria
2005
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| Online Access: | http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1516-44462005000400006 |
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