Retrospective study of suicide and impulsivity

Impulsivity was assessed in 94 successively admitted inpatients according t o previous suicide attempts. No attempt was made to select any particular d iagnostic category of patients. 27 inpatients attempted suicide in the last 15 days, 41 in the last 12 months (15 last days excluded) and 38 beyond th e last 12 months. Impulsivity was assessed using the Impulse Control Scale (ICS) (Plutchik and Van Praag, 1986) and the Impulsivity Rating scale (IRS) , both in a french language version (Lecrubier et al., 1995). Patients who attempted suicide in the last 15 days had significantly higher scores on th e IRS. The more the number of suicide attempts in the last 12 months, the h igher the ICS and IRS scores. However, we showed no relationship between im pulsivity and the number of suicide attempts that occured beyond the last 1 2 months.