Diagnostic morbidity and its relationship to severity of ideation for a nonpsychiatric sample of chronic and severe suicide ideators

Author(s): Weaver, T. L.

Journal/Book: J Psychopathol Behav Assess. 1997; 19: 233 Spring St, New York, NY 10013. Plenum Publ Corp. 191-206.

Abstract: This study examined the relationships of frequency and type of psychiatric diagnosis to suicidality within a sample of chronically and severely ideating college-aged students (N = 78). The most common diagnoses were the depressive disorders, comprising 43% of all diagnoses, followed by anxiety disorders, comprising 17% of all diagnoses. Retrospective reports of childhood diagnoses were also quite common, comprising 38% of all diagnoses. Number of psychiatric diagnoses was significantly correlated with severity of suicidal ideation (r = .27, p < .02). Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that retrospective childhood diagnoses of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and separation anxiety disorder significantly predicted 19% of the variance in severity of suicidal ideation after controlling for current diagnoses of major depression and PTSD. When entry of childhood and current diagnoses were reversed, PTSD significantly predicted 4% of the variance in severity of suicidal ideation, while major depression was rendered nonsignificant. Severe suicide ideation, therefore, may be a product of early psychological problems as well as the number of such problems.

Note: Article Clum GA, Virginia Polytech Inst & State Univ, Dept Psychol, Blacksburg,VA 24061 USA

Keyword(s): suicidality; diagnosis; adolescents; prediction; BEHAVIOR; ADOLESCENTS; PREVALENCE; DEPRESSION; CHILDREN

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