Psychopathy, antisocial personality, and suicide risk

H. Cleckley (1976) maintained that psychopaths are relatively immune to sui cide, but substantial evidence exists for a relationship between antisocial deviance and suicidal acts. This study was the first to explicitly examine suicidal history among psychopathic individuals as defined by R. D. Hare's (1991) Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R). Male prison inmates (N = 313 ) were assessed using the PCL-R and DSM-III-R and DSM-IV criteria (American Psychiatric Association, 1987, 1994) for antisocial personality disorder ( APD), and they completed A. Tellegen's (1982) Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (MPQ). Presence or absence of prior suicide attempts was ende d front structured interview and prison file records. Suicide history was s ignificantly related to PCL-R Factor 2 (which reflects chronic antisocial d eviance) and to APD diagnosis but was unrelated to PCL-R Factor 1, which en compasses affective and interpersonal features of psychopathy. Higher order MPQ dimensions of Negative Emotionality and low Constraint were found to a ccount for the relationship between history of suicidal attempts and antiso cial deviance, indicating that temperament traits may represent,I common vu lnerability for both.