Classification of Suicide Attempters by Cluster Analysis: a Study of the Temperamental Heterogeneity in Suicidal Patients

The purpose of this study was to find sub-groups of suicide attempters with specific temperament profiles. The Karolinska Scales of Personality & the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire was administered to 215 attempters aged 18-81. With these scales, 6 mutually exclusive clusters of differing temperaments were found. Most clusters showed low Socialization scores & high Anxiety scores. One sub-group showed no extreme scores. Thus, attempters are a temperamentally heterogenous group. (40 refs.)