Examination of anger expression in female and male suicide attempt survivors

Abstract

Anger can be associated with a lack of mental resources to control impulses, including suicidal behavior risk. We conducted a case-control study on 84 patients with and without suicide attempt at an emergency hospital in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. The results highlighted that men who have attempted suicide tend to have higher levels of angry temperament than the men in the control group, and women who attempted suicide, in turn, tend to feel angry easily, especially when they are criticized or receive negative feedback. Therefore, the response to environmental contingencies of patients surveyed, or their internal experiences reveals their difficulty in dealing with acute urges to die by suicide, according to the fluid vulnerability theory.