Habits of Nervous Tension and Suicide

Abstract
In a prospective study of 1,046 male medical students, those who later committed suicide showed a heightened sensitivity in stressful situations as assessed by the Habits of Nervous Tension Questionnaire (HNT). Survival analyses specified 2 of the 25 HNT items as the strongest suicide predictors: Irritability (relative risk 5.5; 95% confidence interval 1.76–17.17) and Urinary Frequency (3.3; 1.07–10.32). No other risk factors for suicide emerged from family background measures or individual medical school measures. It appears that types of sensitivity reflect psychological characteristics that are long‐term precursors of suicide.

This publication has 24 references indexed in Scilit: