Citation

Garnefski N, Diekstra RFW. Arch. Suicide Res. 1995; 1: 243-260.

Affiliation

Department of Clinical and Health Psychology, University of Leiden, The Netherlands

Copyright

(Copyright © 1995, International Academy of Suicide Research, Publisher Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The co-occurrence of addiction-risk behaviour, aggressive/criminal behaviour, emotional problems and cognitive problems was investigated in a population-based sample of 477 secondary school students with a history of suicidal behaviour and a similar matched sample of 477 students without such a history. More non-attempters than attempters had problems in a `single' problem category, whereas more attempters than non-attempters had problems in `multiple' categories. The number or accumulation of emotional, behavioural and/or cognitive problems seems of more importance in relation to a history of suicidal behaviour than the specific type of problem. Within the subgroup of suicide attempters, the co-occurrence of symptoms of different disorders was rather the rule than the exception, which raises doubts upon the validity of the prevailing diagnostic and classification systems, such as DSM or ICD.