TITLE:
Coping strategies used by suicide attempters and comparison groups
AUTHORS:
Charlotta Sunnqvist, Lil Träskman-Bendz, Åsa Westrin
KEYWORDS:
Suicide-Attempt; Stressful Situations; COPE; Adaptive and Maladaptive Coping Strategies
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Psychiatry,
Vol.3 No.2,
April
22,
2013
ABSTRACT: A variety of factors have
been identified as being risk factors for suicidal behaviour. One of them is
the handling of stressful events. The aim of the present study was to
investigate the coping-strategies used by suicide attempters and comparison
groups. 37 patients who had recently made a suicide attempt, 38 suicide
attempters at follow up, 20 psychiatric follow up controls, and 19 healthy
controls filled in the COPE. We found that suicide attempters at long term follow
up and healthy controls used more adaptive problem solving strategies than
patients who had recently made a suicide attempt, or psychiatric controls at follow
up, who used more maladaptive coping strategies. Our findings suggest that
suicide attempters in a twelve year follow up are able to use coping strategies
similarly to healthy controls by e.g. approaching the stressor actively.
Further examinations of the impact of long term professional care and treatment
of suicide attempters on their coping strategies are necessary.