Am J Psychiatry 1975; 132:954-956
Copyright © 1975 by American Psychiatric Association
Hopelessness and attempted suicide: a reconsideration
AD Pokorny, HB Kaplan and S Tsai
The authors administered measures of depression, hopelessness, and strength
of suicidal intent to a sample of 112 suicide attempters. The results for
the 55 subjects diagnosed as depressive and admitted within 72 hours after
their attempt were compared with results obtained by Minkoff and associates
using comparable measures. Contrary to the findings of the earlier study,
there was a lower correlation between hopelessness and intent than between
depression and intent. The authors suggest that demographic differences
between the two samples may provide explanations for this descrepancy, in
the that they reflect the presence or absence of external societal supports
that may influence the suicidogenic potential of hopelessness.
