Hopelessness and attempted suicide: a reconsideration.

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.