The Synergistic Effects of Neuroticism and Extraversion on Suicidal Ideation, Single Attempts, and Multiple Attempts in an Inpatient Sample.

The current study sought to investigate the differential risk/protective factors of neuroticism and extraversion among individuals with only suicide ideation, those with a single suicide attempt, and those with multiple attempts. We hypothesized that extraversion would moderate the relation between neuroticism and suicide attempts (single and multiple) but not ideation. Patients in a private facility (N = 3343) completed measures assessing suicide history and general personality traits. Four moderation analyses were conducted with extraversion moderating the relationship between neuroticism and suicide ideation, single attempt (compared to zero attempts), and multiple attempts (compared to zero attempts and to single attempts). Extraversion moderated neuroticism only when comparing individuals with multiple suicide attempts to those with no attempts. Individuals who were low in both neuroticism and extraversion had higher levels of attempts than individuals with low neuroticism and high extraversion, highlighting the importance of considering biological predispositions as risk factors for suicide.

Rates of exposure to natural, accidental, and suicide deaths.

OBJECTIVE: We expand upon previous research examining the prevalence of exposure to suicide deaths by comparing these to natural and accidental deaths. Furthermore, we examine whether participants are more apt to lie about the cause of death for a suicide than for an accidental or natural death. METHOD: The sample consisted of 1,430 respondents who were recruited via Amazon's Mechanical Turk to complete an online study. Participants completed measures to assess exposure to death, causes of death, and willingness to disclose the cause of death to others. RESULTS: Nearly all respondents (94.5%) had been exposed to a natural death, and most of our sample (63.2%) reported exposure to a suicide death. Among those affected by all three causes of death, RANOVA analysis also indicated that people lied about cause of suicide death to significantly more people than accidental or natural. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, the current study presents updated prevalence rates of exposure to various types of death and replicates previous findings of a decrease in willingness to disclose suicides when compared with other causes of death.