Attempted suicide and death anxiety.

Young women who had attempted suicide (N = 103) had scores similar to those of a nonsuicidal group (N = 24) on a validated Death Anxiety Scale. Although the lethality of the suicide attempt was not significantly related to death anxiety, there was a weak but significant negative correlation between measures of suicidal intent and death anxiety, indicating stronger suicidal intent in subjects with less death anxiety. Because of the weakness of this correlation, it cannot be assumed that a patient who indicates that she is particularly afraid of death will not engage in a suicide attempt with high lethality.