Suicidal wishes and depression in suicidal ideators: a comparison with attempted suicides.

A depression inventory was administered to a sample of psychiatric patients who had some suicidal ideation. A factor analysis of their responses to the inventory resulted in a factorial structure similar to that obtained for attempted suicides. The suicidal ideators were found to have higher depression scores on the inventory than the attempted suicides. It was suggested that this study supported the notion that individuals who show differing kinds of suicidal behavior nonetheless may show similar psychological phenomena.