Risk taking among suicide attempters.

Investigated the risk-taking nature of suicide attempts and determined if attempters have a high propensity to gamble on an experimental risk-taking procedure. 102 suicide attempters and 102 controls matched on sex, age, racial ethnic status, and education were Ss. Results show that (a) attempters took more risks than matched controls, (b) attempters whose suicide actions were judged to be gambles also took more experimental risks than nongambling attempters, and (c) a majority of suicide attempts were characterized by risk-taking behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)