Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2brh9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T09:05:02.217Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Life Events and Hostility in Self-Poisoning

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Roger Farmer  and
Francis Creed
Roger Farmer*
Affiliation:
Drug Dependence Clinic, University College Hospital
Francis Creed
Affiliation:
University Department of Psychiatry, Manchester Royal Infirmary
*
∗University College Hospital, Drug Dependence Clinic, 122 Hampstead Road, London NW1 2LT
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Life events in 82 self-poisoning subjects were studied using the Bedford College LEDS to see whether there was a difference between those who had a clear depressive syndrome (according to the Present State Examination) and the remainder. Equally high levels of severely threatening events were found in the depressed and non-depressed groups, but the former were older, had experienced more chronic difficulties and had been treated more often in the past for depression. Greatest numbers of life events were found in those with high levels of extrapunitiveness (recorded on the HDHQ), whereas those who had not experienced a severe life event showed predominance of intropunitiveness. Suicidal intent was not related to experience of life events, but has previously been shown to be associated with high intropunitiveness. The findings are discussed in the light of current theories linking life events, depression and parasuicide, and emphasise the need for longitudinal studies to examine these factors in relation to repeated parasuicide.

Type
Papers
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 154 , Issue 3 , March 1989 , pp. 390 - 395
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1989 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bancroft, J., Skrimshire, A., Casson, J., et al (1977) People who deliberately poison or injure themselves: their problems and their contacts with helping agencies. Psychological Medicine, 7, 289–303.Google Scholar
Black, D. & Creed, F. (1988) Assessment of self-poisoning patients by psychiatrists and junior medical staff. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 81, 97–99.Google Scholar
Brown, G. W. & Harris, T. (1978) The Social Origins of Depression: a Study of Psychiatric Disorder in Women. London: Tavistock.Google Scholar
Caine, T. M., Foulds, G. A. & Hope, K. (1965) Manual of the Hostility and Direction of Hostility Questionnaire. London: London University Press.Google Scholar
Cochrane, R. & Robertson, A. (1973) Stress in the lives of parasuicides. Social Psychiatry, 10, 161–171.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Creed, F. (1981) Life events and appendicectomy. Lancet, i, 1381–1385.Google Scholar
Farmer, R. (1986) The role of life events in deliberate self-poisoning. MD Thesis: Queen's University of Belfast.Google Scholar
Farmer, R. (1987) Hostility and deliberate self-poisoning: the role of depression. British Journal of Psychiatry, 150, 609–614.Google Scholar
Farmer, R. & Creed, F. (1986) Hostility and deliberate self-poisoning. British Journal of Medical Psychology, 59, 311–316.Google Scholar
Isherwood, J., Adams, K. S. & Hornblow, A. R. (1982) Life event stress, psychosocial factors, suicide attempts and auto accident proclivity. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 26, 371–383.Google Scholar
Katschnig, H. (1980) Measuring life stress: a comparison of two methods. In The Suicide Syndrome (eds Farmer, R. D. T. & Hirsch, S.), 116–123. London: Croom Helm.Google Scholar
Morgan, H. G., Burns-Cox, C. J., Pocock, H., et al (1975) Deliberate self-harm: clinical and socio-economic characteristics of 368 patients. British Journal of Psychiatry, 127, 564–574.Google Scholar
Newson-Smith, J. G. B. & Hirsch, S. R. (1979) Psychiatric symptoms in self-poisoning patients. Psychological Medicine, 9, 493–500.Google Scholar
O'Brien, S. E. M. & Farmer, R. D. T. (1980) The role of life events in the aetiology of episodes of self-poisoning. In The Suicide Syndrome (eds Farmer, R. D. T. & Hirsch, S.), 124–130. London: Croom Helm.Google Scholar
Paykel, E. S., Prusoff, B. A. & Myers, J. K. (1975) Suicide attempts and recent life events. Archives of General Psychiatry, 32, 327–333.Google Scholar
Philip, A. E. (1977) Psychological studies. In Parasuicide (ed. Kreitman, N.), pp. 83–84. London: Wiley.Google Scholar
Power, K. G., Cooke, D. J. & Brooks, D. N. (1985) Life stress, medical lethality and suicidal intent. British Journal of Psychiatry, 147, 655–659.Google Scholar
Siegel, S. (1957) Non-parametric Statistics for the Behavioural Sciences. New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Slater, J. & Depue, R. A. (1981) The contribution of environment, events and social support to serious suicide attempts in primary depressive disorder. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 90, 275–285.Google Scholar
Tennant, C., Bebbington, P. & Hurry, J. (1981) The short-term outcome of neurotic disorders in the community: the relation of remission to clinical factors and to “neutralizing” life events. British Journal of Psychiatry, 139, 213–220.Google Scholar
Urwin, P. & Gibbons, J. L. (1979) Psychiatric diagnosis in self-poisoning patients. Psychological Medicine, 9, 501–507.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Weissman, M., Fox, K. & Klerman, G. L. (1973) Hostility and depression associated with suicide attempts. American Journal of Psychiatry, 130, 450–454.Google Scholar
Wing, J. K., Cooper, J. E. & Sartorius, N. (1974) Measurement and Classification of Psychiatric Symptoms. London: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
World Health Organization (1967) Manual of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases, Injuries and Causes of Death, 1965 revision (8th edn) (ICD–8). Geneva: WHO.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.