Relationship between Attempted Suicide and Cloninger’s Personality Dimensions of Temperament and Character in Turkish Psychiatric Patients

Purpose: Suicidal behavior can be regarded as the consequence of the co-occurence of a personality characteristic underlying vulnerability and of state-dependent psychiatric problems. Further research has shown that personality characteristics including impulsivity and a disturbed regulation of anxiety or aggression may represent risk factors for suicidal behavior. The purpose of this study was to report relationship between attempted suicide and Cloninger’s personality dimensions of temperament and character in psychiatric patients. Method: The sample of the study consisted of a sample of 365 female and 179 male adult psychiatric patients, 20.6% (n=112) of whom had recently attempted suicide. Findings: Novelty seeking was a highly significant predictor with high scores observed in patients with and low scores in patients without attempted suicide. Low self-directedness scores were also a substantial predictor of the presence of attempted suicide. Discussion: Temperament dimension novelty seeking appears pertinent to explore suicidality and measurement of character dimensions may be useful in the clinical evaluation of suicide risk.