Issue 4
Vol. 44
2002

A Configural Approach Towards Suicide Risk Assessment: An Exploratory Study
Helmuth P. Huber, Rottraut Ille

Summary
The study was designed to identify patterns of risk factors for suicide attempts by applying a first order configural frequency analysis (CFA). Fifty psychiatric in-patients (21 males, 29 females) and a matched sample of 83 non-clinical participants (32 males, 51 females) were administered measures of depression (D), aggression against others (A), and aggression against self (S). Participants´ ages ranged from 15 to 70 years with M = 37.8 (SD = 14.9) for patients, and M = 29.7 (SD = 11.8) for non-clinical persons. CFA revealed two symptom patterns (D+ A+ S+ , D+ A- S+ ) that occurred more frequently than expected from chance (types), and one configuration (D+ A- S- ) that occurred less frequently than expected from chance (antitype). Compared with participants belonging to the CFA category D- A- S- , the relative risks (RR) of attempting suicide for persons displaying the patterns D+ A+ S+ , D+ A- S+ , and D+ A- S- were RR =9.3, RR = 8.1, and RR = 6.5, respectively. The findings suggest the existence of different types of symptom patterns being predictive of suicide attempts.

Key words: suicide attempts, relative risk, configural frequency analysis


Prof. Dr. Helmuth P. Huber
Ludwig-Boltzmann-Institute of Applied Clinical Psychology
University of Graz
Universitätsplatz 2/III
A-8010 Graz
Tel.: 0043-380-5126
e-mail: helmuth.huber@uni-graz.at