Identification of suicide attempters by means of MMPI profiles

✍ Scribed by James R. Clopton; Robin Dee Post; Judy Larde

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1983
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 284 KB
• Volume: 39
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0021-9762
• DOI: 10.1002/1097-4679(198311)39:6<868::aid-jclp2270390609>3.0.co;2-r

✦ Synopsis

Used multivariate procedures to determine whether psychiatric patients who had made a suicide attempt immediately prior to hospitalization (N = 161) could be differentiated from nonsuicidal psychiatric patients (N = 161). Multivariate analysis of variance and cluster analysis failed to identify differences in the MMPI data of suicidal and nonsuicidal patients. In contrast, discriminant analysis produced a modest degree of differentiation that generally was maintained in the cross-validation.

Attempts to use MMPI data to identify differences between suicidal and nonsuicidal psychiatric patients have not produced consistent results (Clopton, 1979). Some investigators (e.g., Foster, 1975) have found psychiatric patients who commit suicide or attempt suicide to score significantly higher than nonsuicidal patients on several MMPI scales, while others (e.g., Tarter, Templer, & Perley, 1975) have found no significant differences in the MMPI scale scores of suicidal and nonsuicidal patients. However, those studies that have employed multivariate techniques to examine MMPI profile patterns have shown a differentiation of suicidal and nonsuicidal patients (Clopton &