Novelty seeking: difference between suicidal and non-suicidal Hungarian adolescent outpatients suffering from depression.

AIMS: The aim of the study was to explore possible differences in temperament and character dimensions between two focused clinical adolescent groups, namely suicidal (1) and non-suicidal (2) depressive adolescent outpatients.

SAMPLE: From a multisite Western-Hungarian sample of consecutively referred 14-18 year old new psychiatric outpatients, two groups of adolescent outpatients were compared: Group I, n=39 (9 boys, 30 girls) "Suicidal-depressives" and Group II, n=51 (12 boys, 39 girls) "Non-suicidal depressives". Other diagnoses as major depression and/or dysthymia and suicidal behaviour were excluded including bipolar disorder, and the groups were matched by age, sex and family status. Assessment methods used were the Hungarian standard versions of the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (M.I.N.I Plus), and the Junior Temperament (Cloninger) Character Inventory (JTCI).

RESULTS: The only difference between the groups was that suicidal-depressive adolescents exhibited significantly higher novelty-seeking compared to "pure" depressive clinical peers.

CONCLUSIONS: More research and the use of closer clinical personality typologies are warranted to explore the fine differences between these two clinical groups of depressive adolescent patients that are similar to each other in many aspects: suicidal and non-suicidal youngsters.