Gender differences in the association of agitation and suicide attempts among psychiatric inpatients

Objective: To determine if the relationship of agitation with suicide ideation and suicide attempts differed between men and women. Method: Self-reported severity of agitation and other suicide risk factors was obtained from 7698 consecutive patients during admission for inpatient psychiatric treatment during a 5-year period. Results: Agitation was highest among men with a history of suicide attempts. Agitation was significantly associated with frequency of suicide ideation and history of suicide attempt, but the gender-by-suicide interaction was only significant as a predictor of suicide attempt history. For men, agitation was associated with significantly increased risk for suicide attempt, but for women, agitation was not associated with risk for suicide attempt history. Results were unchanged when analyses were repeated among the subgroup of patients with suicide ideation. Conclusions: Agitation is associated with history of suicide attempt among male but not female psychiatric inpatients. Agitation differentiates between those men who have only thought about suicide and those who have made suicide attempts.