As the different affective temperament-types (depressive, hyperthymic, cyclothymic, irritable and anxious) play a significant role in the development and symptom-formation of bipolar and unipolar major mood episodes, the aim of this study was to examine these affective temperaments in persons making suicide attempts.

Using the Hungarian version of the full-scale 110-item version of the TEMPS-A questionnaire. we compared the affective temperament profiles of 150 nonviolent (106 female and 44 male) suicide attempters (121 of them have had current major depressive episode) and 717 normal controls (438 females and 279 males).

Compared to controls, both female and male suicide attempters scored significantly higher in four of the five temperaments, containing mWre or less depressive component (depressive, cyclothymic, irritable and anxious). On the other hand, however, no significant difference between suicide attempters and controls was found for the hyperthymic temperament scores. Significantly higher rate of suicide attempters (135/150=90.0%) than controls (138/717=19.2%) have had some kind of dominant (mean score + 2 SD or above) affective temperament (p=0.0001).

The findings support the strong relationship between depression and suicidal behaviour even on temperamental level, suggesting that hyperthymic temperament has no predisposing role for suicidal behaviour at least in case of nonviolent attempters. As current depression and dysregulated central serotonergic function are well-known suicide risk factors, these findings are also in good agreement with recent results on the significant relationship between the s allele of the serotonin transporter gene and depressive, cyclothymic, irritable and anxious temperaments, but not with hyperthymic temperament.