Year: 1954 Source: New York, NY: Grune & Stratton, (1954). p.199-209 SIEC No: 20090720

This chapter reports on a study of patients with involutional psychoses who were addmitted to a psychiatric hopsital in New York. The histories of 319 patients were reviewed, divided into a group of 100 women & 100 men admitted between 1920 & 1940 before electroconvulsive therapy was used, & a group of 119 patients (69 women & 50 men) admitted between 1940-1950 when electroconvulsive therapy was available. In slightly over 10% of patients there was a history of suicide among antecedents. In male patients, the suicides were overwhelmingly among male relatives & among female patients, the incidence of suicide was four times greater on the maternal than the paternal side. Almost one-fifth of the patients had attempted suicide often in response to situations where the individual had lost face & this loss was known to family & friends.