Am J Psychiatry 1976; 133:841-844
Copyright © 1976 by American Psychiatric Association
The frequency of suicide attempts: a retrospective approach applied to college students
BL Mishara, AH Baker and TT Mishara
Suicide attempt rates are usually reported as an annual statistic. However,
annual rates may underestimate the cumulative prevalence of attempters
since they ignore people whose attempts occurred in years other than the
one examined. The authors studied the prevalence of suicide attempters over
several years through data gathered from retrospective reports of college
students. They found that 15% of the total sample studied (N=293) reported
having attempted suicide at one time. This unexpectedly high rate suggests
that suicidal behavior is a serious problem among college students and
underlines the need for further retrospective studies of the prevalence of
suicide attempters.
