Associations (not definitive factors) with Respect to the Presentation of Suicide and Parasuicide
Parasuicide | Suicide | |
Trend | now stationary | increasing in males |
Sex | females > males | males > females |
Age | below 45 | above 45 |
marital status: | divorced, single | div, single & widowed |
social class: | class V | no clear gradient |
urban/rural: | urban > rural | rural/urban |
rural/urban | unemployed | unemployed and retired |
seasonal variation: | none | spring peak |
broken home | common | common |
physical illness | no association | associaton |
psychiatric diagnosis | situational, reaction, depression, alcoholism | affective disorder |
personality type: | psycopathy common | none special |
suicide attempt vs. parasuicide/non suicidal self injury (NSSI) (1)
suicide attempt | non suicidal self injury (parasuicide) |
the person intends to die | no suicidal intent |
maybe impulsive, but in majority of people, chronic feeling of hopelessness and loneliness is present | usually the person experience increasing anger, tension, anxiety, dysphoria and general distress or depersonalisation |
typically patients express more severe and life threatening methods of self harm e.g. – self poisoning, hanging, jumping, use of firearms | less severe methods of self harm is used e.g. – skin lesions by biting, cutting, burning etc |
increased risk of repeated suicide attempts (but to a lesser frequency than NSSI) | recurrent self injury is common |
| typically the person is aware that his/her behaviour may result in serious injury, but is not life threatening |
Reference:
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