Suicidal Thoughts, Behaviors, and Event-Related Potentials: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Abstract

Suicidal thoughts and behaviors (STBs) are thought to be the result, at least in part, of abnormalities in various neural systems. Event-related potentials (ERPs) are a useful method for studying neural activity, and can be leveraged to study neural deficits related to STBs, but it is unknown how effective ERPs are at differentiating various STB groups. The present metaanalysis examined how well ERPs can differentiate those with and without suicidal ideation (SI), suicide attempts (SA), and those determined to be at different levels of suicide risk, or suicidality. Our meta-analysis included 192 effect sizes from 24 studies. We used a random effects meta-analysis and found a small-to-moderate relationship between ERPs and STBs.However, we also found evidence that the literature may be suffering from small sample publication bias. Our results suggest that ERPs may compliment other approaches, such as fMRI, in the study of the neurobiology of individuals with STBs. However, the clinical utility of ERPs to predict STBs remains to be tested, and larger samples are needed to confirm the results of the present meta-analysis.

Resting-State Network Analysis of Suicide Attempt History in the UK Biobank

“…Finally, this study did not find other significant whole-brain connectivity betweengroup differences. Results are consistent with a recent meta-analyses of event-related potential studies, which found small or no effects in larger studies comparing those with suicide attempt to suicidal ideation alone 51 . Null findings across methodologies using stringent control groups may reflect the need for more nuanced investigation and interpretation of the interplay between biopsychosocial factors to differentiate those with lifetime history of suicide attempt(s) from SDVT alone 5 .…”

Suicide capability within the ideation-to-action framework: A systematic scoping review

“…The current mixture of measures being used hampers development of the field. Measurement issues with single-item assessments of suicide attempts [ 157 ] or contributors of suicide capability [ 66 ] are recurring issues. As Kramer et al [ 158 ] previously argued with regards to acquired capability measures, future research will benefit from using psychometrically sound measures rather than partial versions to allow accurate interpretations and conclusions to be drawn across studies.…”

Examining Blunted Initial Response to Reward and Recent Suicidal Ideation in Children and Adolescents Using Event-Related Potentials: Failure to Conceptually Replicate Across Two Independent Samples

“…Only considering our study and the study by Tsypes and colleagues, it is difficult to decide between these two scenarios. We recently conducted a meta-analysis on the relationship between ERPs and suicidal ideation and found a very small (viz., Hedges’ g = −.06) blunting of the RewP in individuals experiencing suicidal ideation compared to controls (Gallyer et al, 2021). For reasons we discuss in that meta-analytic review, including the small effect size and the high correlation between depression and suicidal ideation (Rogers et al, 2016), it cannot be ruled out that this blunting of the RewP is a false positive.…”

“…We chose two effect size ranges, resulting in two separate equivalence tests: (1) lower bound d = −0.24 and upper bound d = 0.24 and (2) lower bound d = −0.60 and upper bound d = 0.60. Our first effect size estimate was based on recent meta-analytic evidence that the upper bound on the relationship between ERPs and suicidal ideation is Hedges’ g = 0.24, and the second effect size range was based on the effect reported in the study we sought to conceptually replicate (Gallyer et al, 2021; Tsypes et al, 2019). For our equivalence tests, we used the PCAΔRewP as our dependent variable and ideation group (no SI, recent SI) as the independent variable.…”

“…One of the systems outlined by RDoC that has been suggested to be important for understanding suicidal ideation is the positive valence system. Specifically, differences in brain areas involved in reward processing have been proposed as important for the development of suicide-related outcomes (Auerbach et al, 2021;Schmaal et al, 2019), including suicidal ideation (Albanese & Hajcak, 2021). One strong, indirect source of support for this hypothesis comes from a meta-analysis that found that anhedonia is positively associated with suicidal ideation, independent of depression (Ducasse et al, 2017).…”