Predictive scales for parasuicide repetition. Further results

Abstract

A six-item predictive scale for parasuicide repetition was retested on a second sample of Italian parasuicides. All the patients firstever admitted after a deliberate self-harm to the psychiatric department of a general hospital during the period April 1973-March 1976 were interviewed and followed-up after an interval of 1 year. The scale showed the same predictive power found in the first sample (1970-73) and gave a range of probability of repetition within 1 year of 15% at a score of 0 up to 44.8% at the scores 3, 4, 5, and 6. Moreover it discriminated between repeaters and non-repeaters at a significant level. Only two items (diagnosis of sociopathy and change of domicile in the last year) of the five items which discriminated repeaters from non-repeaters in the first study were still significantly associated with repetition, while four additional items (previous in-patient psychiatric treatment; previous parasuicide resulting in hospital admission; unemployment; criminal record) appeared as new discriminating factors. In spite of these changes the rate of repetition remained constant over the years at around 26%.

Risk Factors for Repetition of Self-Harm: A Systematic Review of Prospective Hospital-Based Studies

“…The validity of the scale was examined in six subsequent studies. The sensitivity of the scale tends to be high, falling above 80%, but its specificity is medium, falling between 56% and 67% [12], [40], [42], [64]. Two studies used a score on the scale as a continuous variable and found significantly increased risk of repetition with higher scores [23], [65].…”

Can the Edinburgh Risk of Repetition Scale Predict Repetition of Deliberate Self‐poisoning in an Australian Clinical Setting?

“…Some used prospective designs to delineate risk factors, and others identified variables in a study sample and tested these variables in a validation sample (Bagley & Greer, 1971; Buglass & Horton, 1974; Buglass & McCulloch, 1970; Kreitman & Foster, 1991). Some of these scales were subsequently cross‐validated in other clinical populations (Buglass & Horton, 1974; Garzotto, Siani, Tansella, & Tansella, 1976; Hawton & Fagg, 1995; Myers, 1988; Siani, Garzotto, Tansella, & Tansella, 1979). Only a few studies have used multivariate analyses (Bagley & Greer, 1971; Carter et al, 1999; Corcoran et al, 1997; Hjelmeland, 1996).…”

Parasuicide: features of repetition and the implications for intervention

“…However, the same scale was also tested on two Italian samples of parasuicide patients (Garzotto et al 1976;Siani et al 1979). Although in both cases the probability scores were similar to those obtained by Buglass & Horton, other social and clinical features appeared to discriminate better between repeaters and non-repeaters (Garzotto et al 1976), including one item -previous parasuicide not leading to admission -which was the opposite of one in the original list.…”