Objectives: According to the common view, there is no adequate information in psychiatry l iterature about the connection between on one side “anxiety sensitivity” indicating an intrinsic anxiety tendency or a personality trait and on the other side suicide. This study is planned based on the hypothesis whether higher anxiety sensitivity is a preventive factor in terms of suicide.
Materials and Methods: The study comprises of two groups: one consisting of 31 patients with unipolar depression diagnosis according to DSM-IV-TR, who have never attempted and still had no thought of suicide and the other consisting of 28 patients resorted to Ankara Atatürk Training and Research Hospital psychiatry outpatient department or Ankara Atatürk Training and Research Hospital emergency service upon attempting suicide. Anxiety Sensitivity Index-3 (ASI), Suicide Probability Scale (SPS), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), and Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) are conducted for the patients after receiving their informed consents. In addition, three sub-scales of Anxiety Sensitivity Index-3 -social, cognitive and physical- are investigated with individual scoring.
Results: There were 28 patients in the depression group with suicide history (group 1) and 31 patients in the depression group without suicide history (group 2). No difference associated with age, education, gender and marital status is detected. The difference with respect to total point of anxiety sensitivity index(Mgroup1 = 27.2 ± 16.9, Mgroup2 = 35.9 ± 15.2, t = 2.045, p = 0.045), scores of “physical” sub-scale (Mdngroup1 = 5.5, Mdngroup2 = 10, Z = -1.989, p = 0.047) and total points of Beck Depression Inventory between groups is considered significant. No statistically significant intergroup difference is detected in total points of ASI-3’s social and cognitive sub-scales, BAI and SPS.
Conclusion: As ASI-3 is a scale measurable in a short time for evaluating the suicide risk in depression patients, it can be suggested hereby that ASI-3 can be helpful for clinical use.
}, number={3}, publisher={Ankara Yildirim Beyazit University} }