Suicide Attempters’ Reaction to Survival as a Risk Factor for Eventual Suicide

OBJECTIVE: The authors’ goal was to evaluate whether suicide attempters’ reaction to surviving their attempt predicted eventual suicide. METHOD: Three hundred ninety-three suicide attempters were categorized on the basis of their reaction to having survived their attempt (i.e., glad to be alive, ambivalent, wished they were dead) and were followed for 5 to 10 years to determine whether they completed suicide. RESULTS: A survival analysis found that subjects who said that they wished they had died after a suicide attempt were 2.5 times more likely to commit suicide eventually than those who were glad they survived and those who were ambivalent about the attempt. CONCLUSIONS: Suicide attempters’ reaction to surviving is an important clinical variable that is easily assessed in evaluations that occur following a suicide attempt.