Suicide risk characteristics among aborted, interrupted, and actual suicide attempters

Abstract

Few studies have investigated suicide risk characteristics associated with interrupted and aborted suicide attempts. The present study aimed to empirically examine whether assessing a history of interrupted and aborted suicide attempts is valuable when assessing suicide risk, given the relative lack of literature in this area to date. To inform this question, the current study examined differences in risk factors for suicidal behavior among individuals who have carried out a suicide attempt, individuals who report having a history of only interrupted and/or aborted suicide attempts, and non-attempter controls. Approximately 447 undergraduates (M = 21.10 years; SD = 4.16; 77.6% female) completed measures of carried out suicide attempts, interrupted suicide attempts, aborted suicide attempts, acquired capability for suicide, suicide likelihood, depressive symptoms, suicidal ideation, and non-suicidal self-injury. Results suggest that a faction of individuals endorse interrupted and/or aborted suicide attempts (8.7%), but do not endorse carried out suicide attempts, even in non-clinical samples. Furthermore, results suggest that there are few clinically meaningful differences between those with a history of carried out suicide attempts and interrupted/aborted suicide attempts, suggesting that individuals with a history of these lesser studied suicidal behaviors are an important group to target for suicide risk intervention.

C‐SSRS performance in emergency department patients at high risk for suicide

“…Thus, aborted attempts and interrupted attempts performed differently than actual attempts. This differs somewhat from a prior study in which few meaningful differences were reported in individuals on the basis of whether they had aborted, interrupted, or actual SAs (Burke, Hamilton, Ammerman, Stange, & Alloy, 2016). However, the prior study was cross‐sectional and in undergraduates, perhaps accounting for the different findings.…”

Understanding Suicide Across the Lifespan: A United States Perspective of Suicide Risk Factors, Assessment & Management

“…A history of (or active) NSSI also places a person at higher risk . A higher risk for suicide was associated with a higher number of methods used, a higher amount of NSSI performed, and more frequent NSSI performed .…”

“…Another important factor that increases an individual's risk of suicidal requiring assessment is NSSI. Clinicians should take a detailed history regarding the frequency and number of methods, as higher numbers of each increase risk for suicide .…”

Decreased Neural Response to Threat Differentiates Patients Who Have Attempted Suicide From Nonattempters With Current Ideation

“…For example, a positive response to a single item could include aborted or interrupted attempts in addition to suicide attempts. However, recent work suggests there may be few differences between those with a history of suicide attempt versus interrupted/aborted attempts only (Burke, Hamilton, Ammerman, Stange, & Alloy, 2016), somewhat mitigating these concerns. An additional limitation of the single item measure is that it cannot provide information about the intent, lethality, recency, or frequency of suicide attempts—characteristics that may relate to response to threat.…”