Personality, smoking and suicide: a prospective study

From a random sample of Swiss army conscripts, 28 cases of suicide, 36 deat hs due to accident and 2754 controls were analyzed for social and psycholog ical features, in particular for personality factors at age 19 years; furth er information was collected during a follow-up study to age 36 years. Amon g the subjects who committed suicide low school achievement, smoking, and p sychiatric disorders were overrepresented. In both groups of deaths aggress iveness (excitability, reactive aggression, spontaneous aggression) and dep ression scores were higher than among controls. The findings are compatible with those of other studies and biological theories about the role of impu lsiveness in suicide. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.