suicide and parasuicide - a comparison
Last reviewed 01/2018
Associations (not definitive factors) with Respect to the Presentation of Suicide and Parasuicide
| Parasuicide | Suicide | |
| Trend | now stationary | increasing in males |
| Sex | females > males | males > females |
| Age | below 45 | above 45 |
| marital status: | divorced, single | div, single & widowed |
| social class: | class V | no clear gradient |
| urban/rural: | urban > rural | rural/urban |
| rural/urban | unemployed | unemployed and retired |
| seasonal variation: | none | spring peak |
| broken home | common | common |
| physical illness | no association | associaton |
| psychiatric diagnosis | situational, reaction, depression, alcoholism | affective disorder |
| personality type: | psycopathy common | none special |
suicide attempt vs. parasuicide/non suicidal self injury (NSSI) (1)
|
suicide attempt
|
non suicidal self injury (parasuicide) |
|
the person intends to die |
no suicidal intent |
|
maybe impulsive, but in majority of people, chronic feeling of hopelessness and loneliness is present |
usually the person experience increasing anger, tension, anxiety, dysphoria and general distress or depersonalisation |
|
typically patients express more severe and life threatening methods of self harm e.g. – self poisoning, hanging, jumping, use of firearms |
less severe methods of self harm is used e.g. – skin lesions by biting, cutting, burning etc |
|
increased risk of repeated suicide attempts (but to a lesser frequency than NSSI) |
recurrent self injury is common |
|
|
typically the person is aware that his/her behaviour may result in serious injury, but is not life threatening |
Reference:
Columbia Classification Algorithm for Suicide Assessment (C-CASA)