Key points are not available for this paper at this time.
This study focused on assessing variables which may differentiate suicidal drug abusers from nonabusers. Data from a sample of drug abusing (n = 86) and nonabusing (n = 298) suicide attempters were subjected to a stepwise multiple regression analysis to identify factors related to suicidal intent. The analysis revealed that in our sample of suicide attempters, drug abuse status was not a significant contributor to the severity of suicidal intent. However, it was found that hopelessness accounted for a significant proportion of the variance of intent. The findings suggest that hopelessness among drug abusers, an important determinant of suicidal behavior, presents an important target for therapeutic intervention.
Weissman et al. (Mon,) studied this question.