TY - JOUR PY - 2006// TI - Guilt and self-aggressiveness in suicidal behaviour JO - Psychiatria Danubina A1 - Saraiva, C A1 - Santos, Z A1 - Veiga, F A1 - Domingues, V A1 - Cabral, A SP - 37 EP - 37 VL - 18 IS - Suppl 1 N2 - Objectives: From a 15-year clinical experience involving 900 suicide attempters, our aim was to study the associations between guilt/self-aggressiveness and several sociodemographic and clinical variables. Methods: We used a semi-structured questionnaire designed by our unit, with 77 items covering all those aspects. Two groups were compared: group 1 (30%) and group 0 (70%) - positive and negative for guilt/self-aggressiveness, respectively. Results: Regarding sociodemographic variables, within group 1 we found higher proportions of male, divorced, urban, middle-upper social class and advanced schooling individuals. Concerning clinical variables, the following findings were more frequent within group 1: history of physical or sexual abuse, absence of a confidant or group activities, alcohol abuse, mood and personality disorders, professional problems, bereavement, previous suicide attempts, cutting vs. psychotropics as a method, intensive care need, suicide note, suicide plan and high suicidal intent; and less frequent: impulsivity, precipitant quarrel and satisfaction for surviving. Conclusions: Though references to this topic are rare in Suicidology, we found in our sample a subgroup of attempters justifying particular attention for the risk of completed suicide. Their mental construct of self-annihilation seems to involve complex mechanisms such as guilt and self-aggressiveness operating on vulnerabilities of childhood and adolescence development, personality construction and clinical context.

Language: en

LA - en SN - 0353-5053 UR - http://dx.doi.org/ ID - ref1 ER -