Citation

Berlim MT, Mattevi BS, Pavanello DP, Caldieraro MA, Fleck MP, Wingate LR, Joiner TE. Suicide Life Threat. Behav. 2003; 33(3): 242-248.

Affiliation

Department of Psychiatry and Forensic Medicine, School of Medicine, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, and the Mood Disorders Program, Section of Psychiatry, Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre, Porto Alegre, Brazil.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2003, American Association of Suicidology, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

14582835

Abstract

Shneidman (e.g., 1998) has theorized that psychache--general psychological and emotional pain that reaches intolerable intensity--is an important suicide-related variable, and indeed, represents a source of suicidal behavior. This conceptualization, while prominent and clinically and intuitively appealing, has received relatively little empirical scrutiny. In this study, we determined whether an index closely related to psychache, psychological quality of life, would display a special and resilient association to suicidality among 60 adult psychiatric outpatients in Brazil. All patients underwent structured clinical interviews and completed various clinical and quality-of-life measures. We found that the association between psychological quality of life and suicidality remained, even when depression, hopelessness, and other domains of quality of life were controlled. Psychache appears to deserve its place among key suicide-related variables, and deserves the attention of clinicians working with suicidal people.