Results of three separate studies comparing adult schizophrenic and other psychiatric patients suggest that premature death of a parent may be a contributing factor in the etiology of schizophrenia. This finding was not attributable to a genetically-linked tendency toward suicide in parents. Parental death was found to occur earlier among schizophrenics than other patients and, in two studies, to be most frequent among schizophrenics with predominantly paranoid symptoms.

Early death of a parent as an etiological factor in schizophrenia.

Five hundred fifty-eight French-Canadian adolescents and 150 adults served as subjects in a study that compared correlates of suicide ideation. Results of multivariate analyses indicated that suicide ideation in adolescents is related positively to depression and negative stress and negatively to self-esteem and satisfaction with social support. Adult ideation was found to be related negatively to self-esteem and positively to negative life experiences.

Correlates of suicide ideation in French-Canadian adults and adolescents: a comparison.

Suicide: can we predict it?

Weinstein, et al. (1995) noted that volunteer work is related to decreased boredom and an increased sense of purpose in life, however, additional salient factors likely contribute to the therapeuti...

Efficacy of Volunteerism for Role-Loss Depression: A Complement to Weinstein, et al.

China is the only country in the world where the suicide rate for women is higher than that for men. In particular there is current concern about a high suicide rate for women living in rural areas. In this study, two samples of young women ages 20 to 35, one from rural China (n=52) and one from rural United States (n=52) were interviewed as to suicide ideation and suicide risk, as related to psychosocial variables of self-esteem, coping, social support, and attitudes toward suicide. Significant mean differences were obtained between samples on all eleven variables. The pattern of intercorrelations between variables showed both similarities and differences in the two samples. A stepwise multiple-regression analysis indicated that the same four variables, albeit in different order, were predictive of suicide: these variables were self-esteem, instrumental support, the attitude that suicide is morally bad, and an overall rating of coping.

Psychosocial Correlates of Suicide Ideation: A Comparison of Chinese and U.S. Rural Women

Certain disruptions in social relations or loss of social roles tend to precede the act of suicide. In general, this study has attempted to demonstrate the sequential ordering of these social losses and otherdisruptive events. It has been shown that loss of roles irn childhood and early adolescence, parents, home, sibilings, close relatives, and student role tends to be followed by chaotic marriages, loss of occupation role(s), and loss of one's own health either physical or mentalor, in some cases, both. Also parental roles tend to be lost through the death of a child. Take away one's social roles and you take away his humanity (See Palmer, 1970). An individual with nowhere to turn and having lost all, tends to be highly vulnerable to suicide.

The process of suicide: the sequence of disruptive events in the lives of suicide victims.

A comparison of suicidal thinkers and attempters: interim findings

This paper reports the findings of a study on patients admitted to the New Hampshire Hospital at some time between 1940 and 1970, who ultimately committed suicide. The purpose was to focus on the ordering of events in the lives of these patients which led to their self-destruction. Some research has been conducted on former mental hospital patients who completed suicide, but no attempts have been made to establish the ordering of events in the lives of these patients that may have accounted for their suicidal behavior. The assumption here is that research must consider the sequential ordering of significant life events, rather than study isolated factors. In this way the “life style” of a suicide can be examined. From this may stem practical intervention procedures for preventing suicides of formerly hospitalized psychiatric patients.

Niswander Gd

Papers

The process of suicide: the sequence of disruptive events in the lives of suicide victims.

A comparison of suicidal thinkers and attempters: interim findings

An analysis of the sequence of selected events in the lives of a suicidal population: a preliminary report.