Maladaptive beliefs and face emotion processing appear associated with suicidal ideation and behavior in psychosis, results of a retrospective, cross-sectional study suggest.
“The present findings suggest that maladaptive beliefs are associated with a tendency to misperceive neutral stimuli as threatening, and are associated with suicidal ideation and behavior,” wrote Jennifer Villa of San Diego State University and her associates.
In the study, published in the Journal of Psychiatric Research, 101 outpatients aged 18 and older with psychotic disorders were assessed via the Interpersonal Needs Questionnaire–15 (INQ-15) and the Penn Emotion Recognition Task (ER-40). The participants also were assessed via several other measures, including the Modified Scale for Suicidal Ideation (MSSI), reported Ms. Villa. The INQ-15, a self-report measure, assesses interpersonal beliefs that underlie the desire for suicide. The MSSI, an 18-item instrument, measures the presence of ideation in the previous 48 hours.
Ms. Villa and her associates found that , compared with those without any past history of attempts or current ideation. In addition, MSSI total scores were correlated with INQ total scores (P = .002). When comparing disorders, patients with bipolar disorder with MSSI current ideation had higher INQ total scores than did patients without ideation (P = .010) vs. no MSSI current ideation.
They cited several limitations. One is that the findings might not be generalizable, because causal relationships between maladaptive beliefs, emotion recognition, or the risk of suicidal ideation or behavior cannot be inferred. Also, because most of the patients in the sample were middle-aged adults, the findings might not apply to patients who are experiencing first-episode psychosis. Nevertheless, they said, “the results are of clinical interest demonstrating the growing importance of social cognition to the cumulative evaluation of suicide risk in psychosis and identification of potential targets for suicide prevention.”
Ms. Villa reported no conflicts of interest. Two of the authors reported relationships with several pharmaceutical companies.
SOURCE: Villa J et al. J Psychiatr Res. 2018 Ma;100:107-12.