Interpersonal effects of a suicidal communication.

Suicidal behaviors are often referred to as communications, but their impact on the perceiver has been examined only through retrospective case studies. This study, with 72 undergraduates, investigated in a controlled setting the effects of a suicide threat on an S's mood state, level of psychological arousal, cognitive functioning, feelings about the person making the threat, and verbalizations to the suicidal person. A suicidal threat was found to produce greater self-rated anxiety and tension (Psychiatric Outpatient Mood Scale), greater physiological arousal (peripheral vasoconstriction), and an increase in the likelihood that the S would talk to the stimulus person about suicide, death, or dying. The suicidal threat did not significantly alter Ss' perceptions of the suicide risk involved or of the stimulus person's general prognosis. (22 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)