The interpersonal-psychological theory of suicide and the role of psychological pain during the COVID-19 pandemic: A network analysis.
J Affect Disord
; 302: 435-439, 2022 04 01.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-35077712
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION:
Among the most investigated theories explaining suicidal behavior there are the interpersonal-psychological theory of suicide (IPTS) by Thomas E. Joiner and the one focused on the construct of psychological pain (or psychache, or mental pain).OBJECTIVE:
Since it remains unclear whether these two different theories correlate with each other in the explanation of suicidal risk, we used a network analysis approach to investigate the complex interplay between both IPTS and psychological pain theories and history of suicidal planning and/or suicide attempt (SP/SA).METHODS:
A sample of 1,586 university students from various Italian universities was recruited between April 24th, 2020 and February 23rd, 2021, hence during the COVID-19 pandemic. To be included subjects should have been university students and aged between 18 and 35 years old.RESULTS:
Within a network that included the core factors from both models (IPTS and psychological pain), higher fearlessness about death (Acquired Capability for Suicide Scale-Fearlessness About Death, ACSS-FAD) and higher psychological pain (Psychache Scale) were the variables most strongly associated with history of SP/SA.CONCLUSIONS:
Considering a large number of variables, history of SP/SA was explained in particular by fearlessness about death and psychological pain in university students. Hence these aspects should be targeted in the treatment for suicide prevention.Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
COVID-19
Type of study:
Prognostic_studies
Limits:
Adolescent
/
Adult
/
Humans
Language:
En
Journal:
J Affect Disord
Year:
2022
Document type:
Article