Hopelessness and its correlates with clinical outcomes in an outpatient setting

Introduction: This study examined whether patients with hopelessness and those without may significantly differ regarding their main presentations and clinical course in a large Italian population. Methods: The recruited sample included 583 currently euthymic outpatients with major affective disorders. The Beck Hopelessness Scale (BHS) assessed hopelessness using a cutoff score of 9 or higher. Participants were categorized […]

Hopelessness as a predictor of attempted suicide among first admission patients with psychosis: A 10-year cohort study.

Little is known about the longitudinal relationship of hopelessness to attempted suicide in psychotic disorders. This study addresses this gap by assessing hopelessness and attempted suicide at multiple time-points over 10 years in a first-admission cohort with psychosis (n = 414). Approximately one in five participants attempted suicide during the 10-year follow-up, and those who […]

Assessment of Suicide: Beck’s Scales for Assessing Mood and Suicidality (IN: Assessment, Treatment, and Prevention of Suicidal Behavior, edited by R I Yufit & D Lester)

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Assessment of Hopelessness in Suicidal Patients

Development of an Emotionality and Suicidal Tendency Scale for Prisoners in Hong Kong

The Emotionality & Suicidal Tendency Scale (ESTS) was a scale designed to assess the emotional & suicidal tendency of the remand population in prison settings. A total of 1655 remands were randomly selected to participate in the present study. The ESTS was found to have a high degree of test-retest reliability & internal consistency. The […]

Hopelessness in a Community Population: Factorial Structure and Psychosocial Correlates

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Suicide Ideation at its Worst Point: a Predictor of Eventual Suicide in Psychiatric Outpatients

Scales for measuring current suicide ideation, ideation at its worst point in the patient’s life, & hopelessness were administered to 3701 outpatients seeking psychiatric treament. 30 subjects eventually committed suicide, within a mean of 4 years from initial assessment. The assessment of suicide ideation at its worst point identifies a subgroup of patients at relatively […]

A Comparison of the Problem-Solving Abilities and Psychological Distress of Suicidal, Bullied, and Protected Prisoners

This research examines the relation between means-end thinking & psychological distress in a group of young, incarcerated Scottish offenders who exhibited difficulties in adjusting to the prison regime. 4 groups of inmates were studied. Results suggest a hierarchy of problem-solving deficits & psychological distress that were both most pronounced in the inmates placed in suicidal […]

Psychological Testing for Potentially Suicidal Individuals (IN: Suicide: Guidelines for Assessment, Management, and Treatment, edited by B Bongar)

This chapter describes psychological tests which are useful in obtaining info about suicidal individuals. The tests include: Hopelessness Scale, Suicide Intent Scale, Scale for Suicide Ideation, Suicidal Ideation Questionnaire, & Suicide Probability Scale. Also included is a discussion concerning the WAIS-R, Rorschach, and TAT. (50+ ref.)

Urinary Catecholamines and Cortisol in Parasuicide

This article describes a study of 42 patients tested within 24 hours of admission to an Ontario hospital. Suicide attempters has significantly higher norepinephrine than did control patients with suicide ideation. In contrast, urinary dopamine, epinephrine, the NE/EPI ratio, urinary free cortisol, & serum cortisol did not differ between groups. Data is provided for 4 […]

Panic Disorder and Suicidal Ideation and Behavior: Discrepant Findings in Psychiatric Outpatients

The study in this article examined the suicide attempt rates, levels of suicidal ideation & levels of hopelessness among 4 groups of 900 consecutive psychiatric outpatients. Conclusions: the rates of suicidal ideation & behavior for psychiatric outpatients who had panic disorder were discrepant with those reported by previous investigators for a ramdom community sample of […]

Prediction of Suicide Intent in Hospitalized Parasuicides: Reasons for Living, Hopelessness, and Depression

This article examines the risk prediction efficiency of 5 assessment instruments with 51 newly hospitalized parasuicides. Results suggest that the importance attached to survival & coping beliefs as reasons for not committing suicide was a more direct predictor of suicide intent than hopelessness, depression, & negative life stress. Factors contributing to the efficacy of survival […]

A Comparison and Review of Suicide Prediction Scales (IN: Assessment and Prediction of Suicide, edited by R W Maris et al)

This chapter describes suicide scales utilized in therapy sessions, some psychometric concepts important to test evaluation, some of the attributes of documented suicide prediction scales, and the application of the scales to five clinical cases described in the chapter.

Dysfunctional Attitudes and Suicidal Ideation in Psychiatric Outpatients

This article examines sets of dysfunctional attitudes related to suicidal ideation. 908 psychiatric outpatients were administered 5 tests & rating scales. 97 suicide ideators & 811 nonideators were identified. 4 sets of dysfunctional attitudes (cognitive vulnerability, success-perfectionism, need to impress others, & disapproval-dependence) were significantly related to suicide ideation, but as important variables, they were […]

Adolescent Suicidal Risk: Psychological, Problem Solving, and Environmental Factors

This study examines the life stress & problem-solving interactional model of suicide. 33 hospitalized suicidal adolescents were compared with 21 adolescents hospitalized for other psychiatric problems & with 89 controls. The assessment battery was composed of psychological measures, problem-solving measures, & environmental & family measures. The results suggest the importance of assessing suicide risk at […]

Clinical and Cognitive Predictors of Suicide (IN: Assessment and Prediction of Suicide, edited by R W Maris et al)

This chapter reviews clinical risk factors of suicide – those pertaining to the individual’s psychological state & immediate environment – & discusses cognitive characteristics of suicidal individuals. model of suicidal behaviour, with helplessness as the key psychological variable, is presented. Included is an overview of assessment scales utilized by clinicians: Beck Depression Inventory, Scale for […]

Hopelessness, Depression, Suicidal Ideation, and Clinical Diagnosis of Depression

The relevance of a clinical diagnosis of depression for explaining the discrepant relationships of hopelessness & depression with suicidal ideation was studied. The Beck Depression Inventory, Hopelessness Scale, & the Scale for Suicide Ideation were administered to 1,306 patients with at least 1 DSM-III-R mood disorder & 488 patients without any mood disorders. Hopelessness was […]

Attempted Suicide Among Adolescents: a Stepwise Discriminant Analysis

A sample of 40 adolescents, (mean age=14.8 years), 20 of whom had attempted suicide & 20 who had not, were compared on a number of life history & psychological variables (affective & cognitive). Stepwise discriminant analyses produced one discriminant function (Wilk’s Lambda=0.23; p

Diagnostic Comorbidity in Persons With Suicidal Ideation and Behavior

This paper represents an effort to validate the findings that individuals who meet the diagnostic criteria for panic disorder or panic attacks have a heightened risk of suicidal ideation or behaviour. The findings indicated the relative complexity and importance of diagnostic comorbidity among these suicidal subjects. Mean scores for suicidal ideation and hopelessness were greatest […]

Hopelessness in Adolescent Psychiatric Inpatients

The Beck Hopelessness Scale was administered to 108 adolescent inpatients diagnosed with mixed psychiatric disorders. Moderate to severe pessimism about the future was described by 42.6% of the sample. A principal components analysis of the correlations among the scale’s 20 items was conducted & 3 components reflecting rejection of the possibility of a hopeful future, […]

Hopelessness and the Tendency to Commit Suicide in the Course of Depressive Disorders

In this prospective follow-up study, the predictive power of Beck’s Hopelessness Scale was investigated in 61 depressive inpatients. There were 8 suicide attempts & 2 suicides during the follow-up period. The sensitivity of the Scale was high but the percentage of false-positives was also high. The score at discharge differentiated between the groups with & […]

Cognitive Variables Related to Suicidal Contemplation in Adolescents With Implications for Long-Range Prevention

In 3 studies of 808 college & high school students, consistent & strong relationships emerged between suicidal contemplation & the irrational beliefs considered by rational-emotive therapy to underlie emotional distress. Groups formed on the basis of increasing suicidal contemplation were found to be increasingly irrational on other measures as well. Findings were interpreted as strongly […]

Use of Different Sources of Stress to Predict Hopelessness and Suicide Ideation in a College Population

This investigation expands on past research by (a) evaluating differing sources of stress as predictors of both hopelessness & suicide ideation, & (b) testing for the mediating role of hopelessness. Results replicate & extend those of the previous study. Hassles accounted for unique increments in both hopelessness & suicide ideation scores after negative life events […]