Anxiety sensitivity and suicidal ideation/suicide risk: A meta-analysis.

Abstract

Objective: Suicide is a global public health concern. To inform the prevention and treatment of suicidality, it is crucial to identify transdiagnostic vulnerability factors for suicide and suicide-related conditions. One candidate factor is anxiety sensitivity (AS)—the fear of anxiety-related sensations— which has been implicated in the pathogenesis of a host of mental health outcomes, including suicidal thoughts and behaviors. Importantly, AS is distinct from trait anxiety and negative affectivity, highlighting its potential incremental utility in the understanding of psychopathology. Despite a burgeoning body of literature demonstrating that AS is linked to suicidal thoughts and behaviors, this research has yet to be synthesized. Method: This meta-analysis includes 33 articles representing 34 nonredundant samples (N = 14,002) that examined at least one relationship between AS global or subfactor (i.e., cognitive, physical, social) scores and suicidal ideation and/or suicide risk. Results: Findings revealed small-to-moderate and moderate associations between global AS and suicidal ideation (r = .24, 95% confidence interval (CI): [.21, .26], p < .001) and suicide risk (r = .35, 95% CI [.31, .38], p < .001), respectively. All AS subfactors evinced significant associations with suicidal ideation (rs = .13–.24) and suicide risk (rs = .22–32). Conclusions: AS is related to suicidal ideation and global suicide risk. Research is needed to disentangle AS from other indices of distress in the prediction of suicidal thoughts and behaviors. Theoretical and clinical implications of these findings are discussed.

U.S. Census Bureau‐assessed prevalence of anxiety and depressive symptoms in 2019 and during the 2020 COVID‐19 pandemic

“…On the one hand, the reduced anxiety could reflect adaptation; on the other, anxiety symptoms remain more pronounced than depressive symptoms even despite decreased anxiety, and the increase in depressive symptoms may reflect growing resignation. Growing resignation combined with high anxiety is a concerning combination (e.g., for suicide risk [Stanley et al, 2018]).…”

Violence against physicians in Jordan: An analytical cross-sectional study

“…Suicidal ideation is considered a psychological emergency [ 45 ]. In a two-sided doctor-patient relationship, these ideations can be catastrophic [ 46 ]. All of the aforementioned consequences directly affect the decision making ability of the doctor which is reflected on multiple patients being treated under his/her care [ 47 ].…”

Suicide‐Specific Cognitions, Attentional Fixation, and Worst‐Point Suicidal Ideation

“…It is also worth noting that the cognitive dysfunction subscale questions resemble questions used to measure anxiety sensitivity specifically as they relate to cognitive concerns. Cognitive anxiety sensitivity is the propensity to interpret racing, uncontrollable thoughts as alarming (Capron, Cougle, Ribeiro, Joiner, & Schmidt, ), and this construct demonstrates small to moderate correlations with SI in various samples (Stanley et al, ). It could be that the cognitive dysfunction is actually capturing experiences more similar to cognitive anxiety sensitivity that are still relevant to SI, but not truly representative of attentional biases; thus, it may not serve as a mediator as hypothesized.…”