Attempted suicide in those with personality disorders. A comparison of depressed and unsocialized suicide attempters.

From a sample of 499 patients admitted to hospitals for suicide attempts, a subsample of 182 suicide attempters who described histories of illicit activities or who were diagnosed with DSM-II anti-social, drug or alcohol personality disorders were compared with another sample of 109 suicide attempters diagnosed as having depressive disorders. The former group of unsocialized attempters obtained similar depression inventory scores as the diagnosed depressive attempters. However, the index attempts of the unsocialized group were made with less suicidal intent than those of the diagnosed depressive patients, and they made more prior suicide attempts than the diagnosed depressive patients.