Abstract

Addiction and drug abuse are among the issues that have been greatly adverted by the clinical psychologists and psychiatrists. Suicide attempt, like other social phenomena, is not uni-causal; a variety of factors affects this phenomenon. Thus, having an exact awareness of suicide factors and studying the importance of the factors seem necessary. The present research aims at studying suicidal thoughts, depression, anxiety, and stress among adolescent suicide attempters abusing drug and adolescents without any drug abuse in Zabol in 2016. The present study is a comparative descriptive-analytical one. The statistical populations of the present study were all the 18-to-29-year-old suicide attempters, with a record of drug abuse referring to Imam Ali Hospital in Zabol in 2016. The data collection tool was depression questionnaire and Beck's suicidal thoughts questionnaire. T-independent and chi-square tests were used for data analysis applying SPSS version 18. The participants' mean age was 14.12 +/- 4.13 years. The drug abusers' mean score of depression, anxiety, stress, and suicidal thoughts were 10.12 +/- 4.16, 7.26 +/- 4.48, 9.02 +/- 4.15, and 18.42 +/- 6.12 respectively. As for the comparison group they were 4.32 +/- 2.18, 4.36 +/- 4.26, 5.16 +/- 4.46, and 6.32 +/- 4.18 respectively (p=0.001). The findings obtained from the T-test for the independent groups indicate the difference in means between the two groups with respect to the degree of depression (p=0.001) and suicidal thoughts (p=0.002). The findings obtained from the present study indicated that variables such as drug abuse, depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts are closely related with suicide attempt. Given the comorbidity of drug dependence and other psychiatric disorders, providing educational interventions, executing preventive social plans, and treating psychological disorders for preventing suicide attempts are of great importance.