EXPRESSION OF SUICIDAL INTENT IN DEPRESSIVES

The study was undertaken to find out correlation, if any, between severity of depression and suicidal intent communication and its relation to age, marital status, duration of iilness, previous admission in a psychiatric hospital in patients of depression diagnosed using criteria of ICD-IX category codes F31.3, F31.4, F31.5, F32 and F33. Sample consisted of 30 patients from the OPD of Agra Mansik Arogyashala. The Hamilton Rating Scale for depression was used to measure severity of depression and suicidal intent questionnaire was used to assess suicidal intent communication. A positive correlation between severity of depression, being married, being male, being employed, being ex-mental hospital patient, duration of illness being more than one month and age being less than or equal to 35 years was found. Further research in this area is required.