Incremental Role of Pathological Personality Traits in the Prediction of Suicidal Ideation in General and Psychiatric Inpatient Sample

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate the utility of the pathological personality traits in predicting suicidal ideation, especially in combination with other risk factors, such as the level of depression, prior attempts of suicide, low self-esteem, low level of perceived social support and self-esteem-by-social support interaction, both in general and in psychiatric inpatient samples. Data were analysed within two samples: non-clinical general sample (n = 461) and psychiatric inpatient sample (n = 131). Latvian Clinical Personality Inventory (LCPI) was used as the instrument for data collection. LCPI is a comprehensive multi-scale multi-item inventory, which consists of nine clinical scales (including Depression Symptom Scale), 33 pathological personality scales, five functioning scales, and five additional scales, including a Suicidal Ideation Scale, Low Self-esteem Scale and Lack of Perceived Social Support Scale. Results of the hierarchical regression analysis showed that several facet-level pathological personality traits (depressivity, self-harm, dissociation proneness, submissiveness, and suspiciousness) added significant incremental variance to the prediction of suicidal ideation above and beyond the well-known main risk factors of suicidal ideation, such as depression and prior suicide attempt. This effect remained stable even after taking into account additional interpersonal risk factors, such as low self-esteem, low level of perceived social support and self-esteem-by-perceived social support interaction. The incremental effect of personality traits was medium in the psychiatric inpatient sample and small in the general sample. Findings of the study may assist in early screening for persons with suicide risk and for developing prevention programmes in different settings.

Using Pathological Traits for the Assessment of Suicide Risk: A Suicide Indicator Proposal for the Dimensional Clinical Personality Inventory 2

“…The group of people at high risk of suicide had higher scores in pathological traits, measured with idcp-2 and with pid-5, compared to the other sample groups, confirm the findings of previous studies regarding depression and submissiveness (Perepjolkina et al, 2019), impulsivity (Peters et al, 2016), hopelessness (Beck et al, 1985), vulnerability and self-devaluation (Fergusson et al, 2003). Besides, our results indicated that borderline pd traits are more associated with suicidal behavior compared to other investigated pathological traits, confirming previous findings (Paris, 2002;Winsper et al, 2016).…”

“…Although the specific mechanisms are not yet known, the origin of suicidal behavior occurs through the interaction of several factors, as biological, psychological, social, and environmental (O'Connor & Kirtley, 2018). Among the psychological factors related to suicidal behavior, studies have highlighted the pathological personality traits (Brezo et al, 2008;Jaksic et al, 2017;Perepjolkina et al, 2019;Pompili et al, 2005;Raczek et al, 1989). Evidence indicates an increased risk of suicide in people with personality disorders (pd) and an in people with high scores on pathological traits (Arsenault-Lapierre et al, 2004;Björkenstam et al, 2016), especially for borderline pd (Paris, 2002;Winsper et al, 2016).…”

“…According to previous evidence (Brezo et al, 2006;Perepjolkina et al, 2019), the verification of the predictive capacity of pathological traits to suicidal behavior should assist professionals in the identification of people at risk of suicide. Our focus in this research is on the predictive capacity of pathological traits to suicidal behavior through the Dimensional Clinical Personality Inventory 2 (idcp-2 [initials refer to the name of the scalein its original language, Brazilian-Portuguese]; Carvalho, 2019;Carvalho & Primi, in press).…”

Development of a Pre-hospital Emergencies Protocol for the Management of Suicidal Patients in Iran

“…To what extent is this item understandable and transparent to an emergency technician? Each question was scored on a Likert scale from very low to very high (1)(2)(3)(4)(5). Experts answered all of these questions for each protocol item.…”