Which Psychopathological Syndromes Could Be Associated with the Risk of Suicide among Substance Users?

Abstract

Background: Research has shown that suicide is a highly present phenomenon among the drug dependent population. Moreover, individuals with substance use disorder (SUD) present high psychopathological comorbidity. This study aimed to describe which clinical syndromes are linked to the presence of risk of suicide. Methods: The study was based on a consecutive non-probabilistic convenience sample of 196 patients who attended the Public Addiction Center in Girona (Spain). Sociodemographic data, as well as suicide risk and drug related characteristics, were recorded. The risk of suicide was assessed with the Spanish version of “risk of suicide”. Complicated grief was assessed with the Spanish version of the Inventory of Complicated Grief. Clinical syndromes were measured with the Spanish version of MCMI-III. Results: The syndromes most frequently associated with the presence of risk of suicide were complicated grief, major depression and thought disorder. Conclusions: Different psychopathological syndromes were identified in relation to risk of suicide among patients with SUD. The present results highlight the importance of accurately diagnosing those individuals.

Socio-Demographic and Clinical Characteristics of Psychiatric Patients Who Have Committed Suicide: Analysis of Bulgarian Regional Suicidal Registry for 10 Years

“…Second, it may be related to dissimilarity in mental disorder severity between somatically healthy and somatically ill patients. As stated by some studies (34)(35)(36), the effect of mental disorders on suicidal risk is mediated mainly by a general psychopathology risk factor, not bound to a specific diagnosis. Hence, patients without comorbid somatic conditions may all have been carriers of higher general psychopathology with corresponding earlier set off of suicidal behavior that explains the lower suicide age.…”

What Exactly Is “Complicated” Grief? A Scoping Research Literature Review to Understand Its Risk Factors and Prevalence

“…Other studies revealed a higher rate, such as 30.3% among 468 bereaved military service people (Charney et al., 2018), 31.6% among 160 bereaved military personnel (Simon et al., 2018), 34.2% among bereaved substance abuse users at an addiction centre (Masferrer et al., 2018), and 43% among 148 persons who were bereaved over a trauma death (Matthews et al., 2019).…”

“…Other predictors or factors identified in more than one study included depression (Bellini et al., 2018; Boelen et al., 2019), less happiness and satisfaction with life (Bellini et al., 2018; Charney et al., 2018), and anger at or criticism of government regulations and their government’s response to a tragedy (Huh et al., 2017; Yun et al., 2018). Additional predictors or factors, each identified in only one study, were anxiety (Masferrer et al., 2018), hopelessness (Bellini et al., 2018), guilt (Simon et al., 2018), PTSD (Simon et al., 2018), poorer or lower quality of life (Charney et al., 2018), having made one or more previous suicide attempts (Simon et al., 2018), and having a thought disorder and/or a substance-abuse disorder (Masferrer et al., 2018). One study found people with lower education levels were more susceptible to it (Boelen et al., 2019), while another found a higher number of traumatic events was a predictive factor (Steil et al., 2019).…”