Objective: We examined parental, personality, and symptomatological characteristics in relation to suicide attempts among eating disorder patients.
Methods: Fifty-one eating disorder inpatients, divided into two groups according to lifetime suicide attempts, and 107 non-psychiatric subjects were compared on the following variables: Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI), Global Clinical Score (GCS), Eating Disorder Inventory-91 (EDI-91), Eating Attitudes Test-26 (EAT), clinical and personality characteristics, and family backgrounds.
Results: Suicidal patients reported significantly higher overprotection by both parents than non-suicidal patients and non-psychiatric subjects. Suicidal patients had a more prevalent history of child abuse, affective instability, unstable self-image, avoidance of abandonment, maladaptive perfectionism, personality disorder, and mood disorder. There were no differences in symptomatological factors or the severity of the eating disorders.
Conclusion: The results suggest that high overprotection is associated with suicidal behaviour in eating disorder patients. The association between overprotective parenting and personality characteristics, and methods of suicide prevention are discussed briefly.