Suicide attempters vs. ideators: are there differences in personality profiles?

The underlying question of the present study was whether suicide attempt and suicidal ideation are derived from the same personality dynamic among psychiatric outpatients. Participants included 80 males and females with a history of suicide attempt and 92 without such a history. All participants were evaluated individually with the Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire (TPQ; Cloninger, 1987) and with the Beck Suicide Inventory (BSI; Beck & Steer, 1991). Based on the evaluation results, those without a history of suicide attempt were divided into two groups: high and low suicidal ideations. Data analyses revealed that suicide attempt and suicidal ideation may emerge from distinct, yet somewhat overlapping, personality dynamics.