The relationship of suicide attempt history with childhood abuse and neglect, alexithymia and temperament and character dimensions of personality in substance dependents

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of suicide in Turkish male substance dependents, and to investigate the relationship of suicide attempt history with childhood abuse and neglect, alexithymia, and temperament and character dimensions of personality. Participants were 154 consecutively admitted male substance dependents. Patients were investigated with the Childhood Abuse and Neglect Questionnaire, Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) and Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI). Among substance-dependent patients, 28.6% was considered a group with suicide attempt history (SAH). Current age was lower and rate of being single was higher in the group with SAH. There were no significant differences between groups in terms of employment, educational status and duration of education. Rates of physical, emotional abuse and neglect, self-mutilation and being alexithymic were higher and ages at first substance use and regular substance use were lower in the group with SAH. Mean scores of "difficulty in identifying feelings" (DIF) and "difficulty in describing feelings" (DDF) subscale EOT of the TAS-20 were higher in the SAH group. Among temperament and character dimensions of the TCI, only "Self-directedness" and "Cooperativeness" were lower in SAH and there were no significant differences between groups in terms of other subscales. Age and Self-directedness score of TCI were determinants for suicide attempt. In particular, young drug users with low Self-directedness scores could be the target population in order to prevent suicidal behavior. This study also suggests that in substance-dependent patients, in the background of all suicidal behavior, childhood abuse and neglect must be evaluated.

Alexithymia and Suicide Ideation in a Sample of Patients with Binge Eating Disorder

“…Our results are consistent with the view that the DIF/DDF dimensions of the TAS-20 may facilitate the development of depressive symptoms, leading to an increased suicide risk. 42 Moreover, given that a current diagnosis of major depressive disorder was an exclusion criterion in our study, the results suggest that clinicians should remain attentive to the presence of depressive symptoms, even if they are subclinical, in patients being treated for BED. In fact, especially in the presence of greater alexithymia, subclinical depression may increase suicide risk.…”

Suicidality in Male Prisoners: Influence of Childhood Adversity Mediated by Dimensions of Personality*

“…Higher scores for Harm avoidance and Novelty seeking have been shown in depressed patients with a history of suicide attempt, which was not shown in another study (49–51). Different studies using other personality dimensions show a relationship between suicidality and personality (52–54). …”

Association of Childhood Neglect with Adult Dissociation in Schizophrenic Inpatients

“…However, the authors had merged the categories 'none' and 'mild', and therefore may have possibly been unable to detect a threshold situated between these two. Childhood neglect has been linked to depression [34,35] , substance abuse disorder [36][37][38] , borderline personality disorder [39,40] , obsessive-compulsive disorder [41] , eating disorder [42,43] , and to anxiety in obsessive-compulsive disorder [44] and depression [45] . Hence, neglect probably contributes to psychiatric illness, and this may be mediated by negative effects on self-esteem [46] , affect regulation [45] and current significant relationships [47] .…”