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 & without suicidal behaviour during follow-up, as did the Beck Depression Inventory. Several limitations of these findings are discussed.