Investigating the Relationship between Personality Factors and Suicide Risk

Background: The present study aimed to investigate personality traits of patients who commit suicide by drug intoxication. Methods: This cross-sectional study evaluated 180 patients who attempted suicide by drug intoxication at Shahid Beheshti Hospital, Yazd, Iran in 2022. Due to the census design, all patients who met the study criteria were enrolled. The risk of committing suicide was divided into low, low-to-moderate, and moderate-to-high risk categories using the Paterson criteria. Personality characteristics of the participants were compared using the temperament and character inventory (TCI) in different groups of suicide-attempting risk. Data were evaluated using SPSS version 23. Kruskal-Wallis test and Chi-Square test were used for analysis. Results: The frequency of patients with low, low-to-moderate, and moderate-to-high risk of committing suicide accounted for 45.6%, 46.2%, and 7.2%, respectively. Reward dependence (RD) (P-value = 0.011) and cooperation (P-value = 0.003) represented significant decreases with increasing suicide risk using Kruskal-Wallis test. Other factors of the TCI, including novelty seeking (NS) (P-value = 0.880), harm avoidance (HA) (P-value = 0.660), persistence (P) (P-value = 0.361), self-directedness (SD) (P-value = 0.138), and self-transcendence (ST) (P-value = 0.623), were not associated with the risk of suicide attempt. There was a significant difference in the frequency of factors associated with the risk of suicide, including marital status, depression, and alcohol addiction in terms of age, and sex using Chi Square test (P<0.05).. Conclusion: These results highlight the potential importance of reward dependence and cooperation in understanding suicide risk. In this regard, lower reward dependence and reduced cooperation are associated with higher suicide risk, while other psychological traits assessed by the TCI may not be as relevant.