Citation

Itzlinger U, Heiden A, Scharfetter J, Gebhardt C, Kasper S, Aschauer H. Am. J. Med. Genet. B Neuropsychiatr. Genet. 2000; 96(4): e510.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2000, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

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PMID

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Abstract

The Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI) by C.R. Cloninger, a comprehensive inventory of personality was developed to measure fundamental dimensions of personality suggested to correlate with specific neurotransmitter functions. Supposed that suicidal behavior is associated with changes in the central serotonergic system, there could be a relation between the temperament dimension harm avoidance (HA) of the TCI, which is suggested to correlate with the serotonergic system, and suicidal behavior. Forty two unrelated patients (29 females, 13 males, mean age 37,5 yrs) suffering from bipolar affective disorder (n=25), schizoaffective disorder (n=9), and unipolar affective disorder (n=8) (blind consensus diagnoses, DSMIV) with a life-time history of suicide attempts and 84 healthy controls (57 females, 27 males, mean age 33 yrs) were examined. A self-report questionnaire was done by each participant, giving measures for four personality (harm avoidance (HA), novelty seeking, reward dependence (RD), persistence) and three character dimensions. Patients with a positive life-time history of suicide attempts scored significantly higher than controls on HA (p<0.0001) and RD (p=0,0049) in the TCI. Our results support the hypothesized association between Harm Avoidance and suicidal behavior. The impact of the high scoring on RD in our patients, has to be further investigated.

Language: en