Characteristics of 77 Puerto Ricans who attempted suicide

Seventy-seven patients of Puerto Rican origin who had attempted suicide and were admitted to the inpatient psychiatric unit of a general hospital were administered the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia (SADS), selected items of the Life Crisis Inventory, and the Beck Depression Inventory. Their scores on the SADS medical lethality and suicidal intent scales were in the minimal range, and their Beck inventory scores were in the mild range. Logistic regression analyses showed that alcohol and other substance abuse was a significant predictor of attempted suicide; place of birth (Puerto Rico versus the continental United States) was not.