Role of aggression and impulsivity in suicide attempts and in suicide completion

Aggression-impulsivity are risk factors for suicide attempts. The association between aggression, impulsivity, and suicidal behavior is well documented and is based on decades of research and clinical practice. In analyzing the reciprocal relationship between aggressiveness impulsivity and suicide behavior it is important to make a distinction between acts (or observable behaviors, e.g. an aggression) and traits or predispositions (e.g. impulsivity or aggressiveness), which are non-observable, inferred constructs. It is also important to better defi ne the various suicidal behaviors. Looking at aggression and impulsivity in near lethal attempters may be very different from examining these associations in suicide attempt repeaters who frequently are present at emergency rooms.