The Relationship Between Psychache and Suicide Risk With Spiritual Well-Being Levels of Patients Diagnosed With Depression

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Depression has long been accepted as a serious disability and burden globally, while suicide is a misunderstood and complex cause of death. Psychache is the psychological variable most strongly associated with suicidality. Spirituality is considered an important buffer against stressful events and may help people overcome distress and difficulties. AIMS: This study aims to determine how psychache and suicide risk are related to levels of spiritual well-being in patients with depression. METHODS: Data were collected using the Suicide Probability Scale, the Psychache Scale, and the Spiritual Well-Being Scale. The sample study consisted of 150 Turkish patients diagnosed with depression and receiving psychiatric care. RESULTS: It was found that higher level of spiritual well-being led to decreased risk of suicide and lower level of psychache. Suicide risk increased in parallel to the increasing levels of psychache ( p < .001). CONCLUSIONS: It was observed that higher levels of spiritual well-being may promote a significantly lower risk of suicide and lower levels of psychache. Likewise, increasing levels of psychache may lead to an increase in suicide risk.

Risk factors and protective factors of suicidal behavior in people diagnosed with depression

“…In the current study, religious crisis was found to be a predictor of suicide risk. Meanwhile, in other studies on samples of healthy individuals, the strongest predictor of suicide risk was psychological pain (Campos et al, 2019;Surmacz et al, 2021;Tanrıverdi et al, 2022a). Contrary to the results of this study, spirituality was found to be a protective factor against suicide risk in other studies (Tae & Chae, 2021;Wu et al, 2015).…”

“…A Polish study conducted during the Covid-19 pandemic on a population of healthy individuals found that psychological pain was the strongest predictor of suicide attempts (Surmacz et al, 2021). Similar results have been obtained in other populations (Campos et al, 2019;Tanrıverdi et al, 2022a). Shneidman (1998), after analysing suicide notes from people committing suicide, noted that most of them described 'intolerable' emotional distress and a belief that death was the only way to end it (Shneidman, 1998).…”

“…A 2022 study of 150 patients with a diagnosis of depression receiving psychiatric treatment found that higher levels of spiritual well-being led to a reduced risk of suicide and lower levels of psychological distress. Suicide risk increased in parallel with increased levels of psychological pain (Tanrıverdi et al, 2022a). In the Koening et al study, religiousness was also found to be: 1) the most effective protective factor for suicidal behaviour, 2) a factor that moderately reduces depression, and 3) a factor that positively affects mental health and well-being (Koenig et al, 2020).…”

Mental Pain Correlates with Mind Wandering, Self-Reflection, and Insight in Individuals with Psychotic Disorders: A Cross-Sectional Study

“…Mental pain in psychotic disorders has been the focus of several studies. It has been recognized as a risk factor for suicide, generalizable between different types of populations [13][14][15][43][44][45][46][47][48]. One such study, which involved 25 outpatients with schizophrenia and used Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data, found a correlation between high levels of psychological pain, increased suicidal risk, and altered cortical folding gyrification in the fronto-parietal region [14].…”