Four-Years General Hospital Counseling for Suicide Attempters: the Padua Experience

The relationship between intent & psychopathology was examined in 134 adult Italian patients admitted to hospital after a suicide attempt. Suicide intent was evaluated using the Intent Score Scale & the Suicide Assessment Scale. Logistic regression showed multiple attempts were correlated with religious practice & psychiatric diagnosis. Intent prior to the attempt was related to psychiatric diagnosis. Residual intention was correlated to age & psychiatric diagnosis. Results indicated subjects with personality disorders, even though their previous intent was lower than those with diagnoses in axis I, maintained higher levels of intent after the attempt. The importance of diagnosis for prevention is highlighted. (13 refs.)