MCMI-III Scores on Substance Abusers With and Without Histories of Suicide Attempts

68 patients with a history of suicide attempt were compared to 340 patients without a history of suicide attempt using the MCMI-III. Patients with a suicide attempt history scored higher on Schizoid, Avoidant, Depression, Dependent, Passive-Aggressive, Self-Defeating, & Paranoid, & significantly lower on Histrionic & Compulsive. Logistic regression correctly predicted the no-suicide-history group with 97% accuracy, but only accurately predicted 16% of the patients with a suicide attempt history. A discriminant function analysis correctly predicted 90% of the patients with a suicide attempt history & 63% of the patients without such a history. Results suggest that MCMI-III scores may be able to detect patients with a history of suicide attempt, using multivariate statistics. (26 refs.)