Suicide attempters' reaction to survival as a risk factor for eventual suicide.

Abstract

The authors' goal was to evaluate whether suicide attempters' reaction to surviving their attempt predicted eventual suicide. Three hundred ninety-three suicide attempters were categorized on the basis of their reaction to having survived their attempt (i.e., glad to be alive, ambivalent, wished they were dead) and were followed for 5 to 10 years to determine whether they completed suicide. A survival analysis found that subjects who said that they wished they had died after a suicide attempt were 2.5 times more likely to commit suicide eventually than those who were glad they survived and those who were ambivalent about the attempt. Suicide attempters' reaction to surviving is an important clinical variable that is easily assessed in evaluations that occur following a suicide attempt.