Exposure to suicide in the family: Suicide risk and psychache in individuals who have lost a family member by suicide

Abstract

Objective:The aim of the present study was to compare a sample of Portuguese individuals exposed to suicide in their families with a control group, for lifetime suicidality. This study also evaluated the incremental value of psychache (i.e., extreme psychological pain) in determining suicide risk beyond the contribution associated with having lost a family member by suicide.Method: A total of 225 community adults participated. Two groups were defined: a group exposed to suicide (n = 53), and a control group (n = 172). Results:Results demonstrated that groups did significantly differ on the total score of the Suicide Behaviors Questionnaire-Revised (SBQ-R), on the four individual SBQ-R items, and on psychache.Results from a hierarchical multiple regression analysis demonstrated that having lost a family member by suicide and the construct of psychache each provided a significant unique contribution to explaining variance in suicide risk. The interaction between group membership and psychache also provided a further enhancement to the statistical prediction of suicide risk. Conclusion:Findings are discussed with regard to their implications for clinical intervention and postvention.

Reliability and validity study of the Turkish Version of the Psychache Scale

“…Bilindiği gibi, PAÖ Shneidman'ın psikolojik acı tanımını değerlendirmek için geliş-tirilmiştir ve üniversite öğrencilerinden oluşan örneklem grubunda ölçeğin alfa katsayıları 0.90'ın üstündedir. 27 Ölçeğin Portekiz uyarlamasının iç tutarlılık ve geçerlilik açısından BUÖ ve İntihar Davranışları Anketi ile korelasyon göster-diği belirlenmiştir ve belirtilen örneklemde Cronbach alfa katsayısı 0.94'tür. 13 …”

Rorschach Assessment in Suicide Survivors: Focus on Suicidal Ideation

“…Scientific literature has already provided evidence in this direction (12, 13, 15, 18–21, 37), noting associations between levels of psychopathology and degree of kinship with the victim of suicide. Even in these cases, however, the survey was based on self-report measures or by means of interviews based on explicit questions, and never before with the use of a projective measure.…”

“…In the first case, it is perhaps superfluous to say that surviving one's own children represents a huge conflict, and it is common clinical experience that is perceived by the parents as being “against nature.” Even more, when the child voluntarily chooses to end his life, this act can be perceived by the parents as an existential failure. The literature has in fact been very dedicated to this theme, highlighting the particular drama of this condition (12, 13, 15, 18–21, 37). In the second case, relating to the death by suicide of a parent, the drama and the anger facing the self can be similarly enormous, because the SS was not able to save the life to who gave life to him/her.…”

“…Namely, it has been proved that a family history of suicide increases up to ten times the suicide risk in the family members (21) compared to the risk of general population, independently of possible inherited vulnerability for mental disorders shared with the victim (18). Recently, Campos et al (13) and Santos et al (19) found that, in a large European sample of SSs, being a strict relative of the suicided person, significantly contributed to the suicide risk. Similar results were found in Asian population: Song et al (37) found that individuals who lost a family member have in their lifetime 4.5 times more probability of SI, whereas if the victim was a friend or an acquaintance the SI probability was, respectively 3.7 times and 2.2 times that of people without such experience.…”

“…Our second hypothesis is that the expected greater SI in SSs participants, depends on the kinship with the deceased person, in terms of increasing SI if the victim is a child or a parent. The literature has already provided some elements to support the hypothesis that strict relatives bereaved by suicide may be at particular risk for suicide themselves (12, 13, 15, 18–21, 37).…”