Folia Medica , XXXXI, 1 /1999

SUDY OF SAL RISK AND ENDENCY IN

DEFECTOLOGISTS AND LOGOPEDISTS FROM SCHOOL
FOR ANDICAPPED LDREN

D. Georguiev
Stknt 0/ Medici~ Higher Medicallstitute, Plovdiv

SUARY
his study was carried out to ascer1ain the suicidal risk aod teodeocy
amoog 26 defectologists aod 3 logopedists. he objective was to find
the perceotage of teachers worldng in the saod i cooditioos
of teaching among whom suicide tendencies high suicidal
risks observed.

words: suicidal risk, suicidal tendency, defectologist.

between suicidal tendency and depressive

study of suicidal risk and tendency was
carried out among 29 defectologists (3 of
them Iogopedists) - 23 women and 6 .
he teaching process in which defectologists
and Iogopedists from the schooIs for handi-
capped children involved differs greatly
from that of their coUeagues in the schools
for healthy children, which categorizes them
in two qualitatively different groups. he
test of teachers was carried out in the "Stefan
Karadzha" School for Handicapped Chil-
dren in Plovdiv (I-st to VI-th grade)
between April17 and June 6,1998. study
of similar nature among the teachers in
the Plovdiv district has been done for the
first time.
some of the questions were ! understood).
1. find out the percentage of teachers
working in specific and particularly hard
conditions of the teaching process, among
which suicidal tendencies high suicidal
risks are observed. 2. find out the !
diagnostic status of suicidal tendency among
defectologists. 3. fd out the connection
symptomatics. 4. find out if there is
positive correlation between professionaI
burden and suicidaI tendency, especially in
occupations with considerable psychic and
mental Ioad.
ND METHOIJS
Defectologists, logopedists and teachers from
comprehensive schooIs were tested with
new variant of Pjoldinger's test, including
14 new questions apart from the previous
16 ones, extending and broadening in this
way testing for suicidaI risk and, the
other hand, avoiding the artificial filling in
of the test form. he testing was carried out
defectologist teacher separately, indi-
vidually ( with assistance in cases when
The new variant of testing was improved
with respect to the search for the three time
projections of suicidaI risk which was
achieved with the help of specified and
clearly forrnulated questions. For example,
the prognostication of suicidal risk in the
future was based in the question Are

nd reprint request : D. Georgieff,Stknt 0/ Medicine, Higher Medicallstitute, Plovdiv

15 VassilAprilov SI., 4000 Plovdiv, Bulgaria
 SUDY SUJCIDAL RJSK AND ENDENCY JN DEFECOLOGJSS AND LOGOPEDJSS
_ FROM SCHOOL FOR ANDJCAPPED CJLDREN

ready 10 suicide in [ (according to data from relatives and 001-

despair? Yes/No, whereas when referring to
the past, the same question was formulated
; Have ever attempted to commit
suicide? Yes/No. Other questions involved
and clarified the fol1owing issues: lack of
good mood, decreased self-confidence, trou-
ble-making and inability to good
terrns with the others, reactive attitude,
psychic discomfort, fear of death, other
morbid fears, hobbies, ideologicaVreligious
commitments, familial and professional
responsibility, anhedonia, etc.
The test also included questions that
clarified and supplemented the results of the
main questions, for m!, Are fully
aware [ the suicidal situation and its
consequences? he basic questions that were
with Pjoldinger's test included the
questions c!arifying the probable and/or
supposed "technique" of suicide.
RESULTS
Five of the 26 defectologists and 1 of the
three logopedists showed marked suicida!
tendency - total of 20.7% of the
defecto!ogists and logopedists studied. One
of them had history of previous attempt
at suicide and one of the defectologists in
the same school had oommitted suicide
leagues after carrying out the psychological
autopsy). The remaining 23, approxi-
mately 80%, did not show attitude to sui-
cida! risk, excluding three of them, whose
results of the test were also normal, but they
reported of accidental suicidal
thoughts. This fact, considered with respect
to the specificity of their occupation, gave
grounds to suspect increase of the suicida!
risk in them. Of the six cases of suicidal
tendency, five pointed out depressive mood
and decreased se!f-confidence, total of
14 people pointed out presence of depres-
sive symptoms (bl) .
Comparing the results with those -
tained from another professional group of
teachers
he results of testing 32 teachers (27
females and 5 males) from the "it
Ohridski" Comprehensive Schoo!, Plovdiv
were normal with respect to suicidal risk
and tendency (excluding 1 woman teacher,
aged 37, with suicida! thoughts without
oonsequences and gastric ulcer), but they
were characterized depressive bur-
dening: 14 people pointed only dysthymia,
other 14 - nJ psychic disoomfort. Ten
people pointed oth dysthymia and psychic
disoomfort, and only 14 (+ 5 males)

# sex age marital suicidal status depressive

status symptoms
1 ! 56 mid suicidal thoughts with suicidal threat +
1 Female 40 divorced suicidal thoughts with suicidal threat +
1 Female 35 id suicidal thoughts with suicidal threat, -
(Lupus Erythematodes Diseminatus)
1 Female ----- suicidal thoughts with suicida! threat +
1 Female 24 mid suicidal thoughts with suicidal threat + 1 +
attempted suicide - hospitalized at the
Clinic of Toxioology at the Higher Medical
Institute, P!ovdiv
1 Female 50 divorced suicidal thoughts without oonsequences +
1 Male 4 mid accidenta! suicidal thoughts -
1 ! 40 single accidental suicida! thoughts +
1 Female 47 single accidental suicidal thoughts +
FoliD Medica , XXXXl, 1 /1999
completely lacked depressive symptomatics.
As opposed to these results, suicida1 -
dency was observed in 20.7% of the
defectologists. total of 14 people among
the defectologists had depressive sympto-
matics, including 5 of the total of 6 people
with suicidal tendencies.
DISCUSSION
Obviously, it is not always necessary to
study large group of people, especially
when the conditions of work favours the
occurrence and increase of their suicidal
risk. Without looking for statistically dis-
cemible models of testing following
epidemiological criteria, studies of this kind
prove to exceUent means of reporting
the actual psychological status in special-
ized teams. In this type of studies we can
speak of professional harm being inflicted
psychic health.
he small number of the people studied
does not allow for correlation to is estimated to
made between suicidal risk, age and sex.
considerable dissociation between the pres-
ence of suicidal group tendency among
defectologists and its absence among the
teachers in the comprehensive schools was
observed. positive correlation between
the suicidal tendency present and the de-
pressive symptomatics was found out.
he future studies of suicide in theoreti-
l plan should clarify the specific pattem
and relations between inclination to suicide
and fear of death. he present study found
out that suicidal tendencies were manifested
on1y in cases of lacking fear of death, though,
considering the inf1uence of obsessions,
suggested ideas, etc., inclination to suicide
associated with the presence of such
as well. table results shows
that relatively large percentage of the
defectologists with suicidal tendencies had
unsatisfactory marital status that prob-
contributed to the deepening and
development of their suicidal status. In the
remaining part of the teachers - the married
ones - we cannot state that they might
in more favourable situation, all the
that it is not possible to maintain that their
marital status reflects upon and influences
in lesser degree the suicidal tendency,
the contrary. In other words, the suicidal
burden in both the divorced and married
people cannot graded, though frustration
pronounced in the
divorced.
REFERENCES
1. Atchkova . Psychiatria. Znanie 1996 (ulgar-
ian).
2. Frank W. Psychiatria. Med. izdatelstvo "Schatrov".
Sofia. 1995.
3. Mitrev 1. Umelated to psychosis intentional self-
poisoning in the region of Plovdiv. Tasks of medical
psychology. Plovdiv 1994:28-30 (ulgri).