Impulsivity and Psychiatric Morbidity in Suicide Attempters - A Cross-Sectional Study in a Tertiary Care Centre in Northern Kerala

BACKGROUND In this study, we wanted to evaluate the prevalence and association of impulsivity and psychiatric morbidity in suicide  attempters, along with the socio-demographic characteristics of those who attempt suicide. METHODS This was a hospital-based cross-sectional analytical study conducted among 150 patients who presented with a history of suicide attempt to the Department of Psychiatry, Government Medical College, Kannur, Kerala, from 1st May 2021 to 30th April 2022 after obtaining clearance from the institutional ethics committee and written informed consent from the study participants. RESULTS Psychiatric morbidity was seen among 81%  of the study participants, and the commonest among them were mood disorders (47%) including (major depression, bipolar, and dysthymia) followed by a general anxiety disorder, phobia, anxiety disorder NOS, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and stress-related disorder (14%). The overall scores were observed to be a mean (SD) of 62.3 (8.9), while the distribution of BIS “Non- Planning”, BIS “Motor Impulsiveness” and BIS “Attentional Impulsiveness” was observed to be 29.6 (7.1), 19.5 (4.9), and 13.1 (3.4) respectively. Also, it was seen that there was a statistically significant difference in the distribution of BIS scores in relation to the overall score, “Non- Planning”, and BIS “Motor Impulsiveness” between the proportion having psychiatric morbidity and without psychiatric morbidity (p-value <0.05). CONCLUSIONS We found that a history of suicide attempts was more common among males. The 4/5th of the participants had some form of psychiatric morbidity and the most common ones seen among the participants were major depression, bipolar, and dysthymia followed by anxiety disorder.