Personality Disorder, Tendency to Impulsive Violence, and Suicidal Behavior in Adolescents

This article reports on a study comparing 37 inpatient suicide attempters with 29 never-suicidal psychiatric controls with respect to prevalence & severity of personality disorder, history of aggression & assaultive behavior, & other measures of impulsive violence. The apparently high prevalence of personality disorder among adolescent inpatient suicide attempters indicate that the social impairment associated with personality disorder may be viewed as an important aspect of treatment.(48 Refs.)