LIFE EVENTS AND SELF-DESTRUCTIVE BEHAVIOR

The role of life events in precipitatine self-destructive behaviour, especially in suicide attempts, needs to be studied in this paper the social readjustment rating scale (Holmes and Rahe), ni its spanish version, in a sample of 100 suicide attempters are reported. The mean social readjustment index was 255,2 +/- 137,01, which is a higher score than that observed in medical inpatients (180,69 +/- 72,03) in our context. The mean life events index was 8,69 +/- 4,32, higher valves than were recorded in the somatic in patients sample (5,97 +/- 2,99). No sex differences were found in any of the two indexes. The finding of a greater number of unpleasant life eventes by different researchers is discussed.