Are High-Lethality Suicide Attempters With Bipolar Disorder a Distinct Phenotype?

Bipolar patients were classified as high- or low-lethality attempters. High-lethality attempts required inpatient medical treatment. Mixed effects logistic regression models & permutation analyses examined correlations between lethality, number, & order of attempts. High-lethality attempters reported greater suicidal intent & more previous attempts. Multiple attempters showed no pattern of incremental lethality increase with subsequent attempts, but individauls with early high-lethality attempts more often made high-lethality attempts later. A subset of high-lethality atempters make only high-lethality attempts. However, presence of previous low-lethality attempts does not indicate that risk for more lethal, possibly fatal, attempts is reduced. (40 refs.)