This Article  • References  • Full text PDF  • Reply to article  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citation map  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in this journal  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

Gunnar Edman, PhD; Marie Åsberg, MD; Sten Levander, MD; Daisy Schalling, PhD

Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1986;43(6):586-592.

Abstract
• The concentration of 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid (5-HIAA) in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and psychophysiologic variables, such as habituation of the skin conductance response, were measured in 35 drug-free, suicidal inpatients. Twentyfour patients were hospitalized after a suicide attempt, and another 11 had suicidal ideation. The suicide attempters were classified into nonviolent (drug overdoses taken orally, or a single wrist cut) and violent (all other methods). As in previous studies, the suicide attempters had significantly lower CSF concentrations of 5-HIAA compared with healthy, matched controls. The distribution of habituation rate was bimodal (slow and fast habituators). All violent attempters were fast habituators, as were all four patients who in a one-year follow-up were found to have completed a suicide (all by violent methods). The lowest frequency of fast habituators was found in the group of patients with suicidal ideation. There was no correlation between CSF 5-HIAA and habituation rate. A combination of these two variables yielded a highly significant correlation with type of suicide behavior, both retrospectively and prospectively.

Author Affiliations
From the Department of Psychiatry and Psychology, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm (Drs Edman, Asberg, and Levander), and the Department of Psychology, University of Stockholm (Dr Schalling).

Footnotes
Accepted for publication Aug 15, 1985.

Reprint requests to Department of Psychiatry and Psychology, Karolinska Hospital, PO Box 60 500, S-104 01 Stockholm, Sweden (Dr Edman).

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?

THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES

The Role of the Body Experience in Self-Destruction
Orbach
Clin Child Psychol Psychiatry 1996;1:607-619.
ABSTRACT  

On the Neuropsychology of Suicide
Bigler
J Learn Disabil 1989;22:180-185.
 

Electrodermal Responsivity and Suicide Risk
Thorell and D'elia
Arch Gen Psychiatry 1987;44:1112-1112.
ABSTRACT