Abstract
Increased Suicidality in Depression: Group or Subgroup Characteristic?
van Praag H M~~Plutchik R
Lifetime histories of depressive episodes & suicide attempts were ascertained for 172 depressed patients. 55 had made at least 1 attempt. The correlation of depressive episodes & the total no. of attempts was close to zero. However when the data were converted into rate measures, the correlations were very high; approx. 1/3 of severely depressed patients have a history of attempts. Once an attempt has occurred the patient is at high risk for more attempts if future depressions occur.