Citation

Keller F, Wolfersdorf MG. Crisis 1993; 14(4): 173-177.

Affiliation

AG Verlaufsforschung, Depression Division, in Ravensburg, Germany.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1993, International Association for Suicide Prevention, Publisher Hogrefe Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

8156815

Abstract

In patients with major affective disorders, research has indicated that the extent of hopelessness is a promising variable for predicting suicide. In this prospective follow-up study, the predictive power of Beck's hopelessness scale (HS) was investigated in 61 depressive inpatients. The examination included the HS, the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), and personal interviews at admission, at discharge, and 1 year after discharge. There were eight suicide attempts and two suicides during the follow-up period. The sensitivity of the HS was high, i.e., a score of 8 or more correctly identified 90% of the eventual suicidal actions, but the percentage of false-positives was also high. The HS score at discharge differentiated between the groups with and without suicidal behavior during follow-up, as did the BDI. Several limitations of these findings are discussed.

Language: en