Physiological Reactions to a Suicide Film: Suicide Attempters, Suicide Ideators, and Nonsuicidal Patients

A film about 2 teenagers who commit suicide was shown to 3 groups of psychiatric inpatient: 17 suicide attempters, 20 suicide ideators & 10 who were not suicidal. Anxiety before & after the film was evaluated with psychometric & physiological tools. Attempters had significantly lower postscreening heart rates & a significantly lesser change in heart & respiration rates than the other 2 groups. The agitation of the nonsuicidal patients continued to increase from the start to the end of the film.