Citation

Yen S, Shea MT, Walsh Z, Edelen MO, Hopwood CJ, Markowitz JC, Ansell EB, Morey LC, Grilo CM, Sanislow CA, Skodol AE, Gunderson JG, Zanarini MC, McGlashan TH. J. Clin. Psychiatry 2011; 72(11): 1522-1528.

Affiliation

700 Butler Drive, Duncan Bldg, Providence, RI 02906, USA. (Shirley_Yen_PhD@Brown.edu)

Copyright

(Copyright © 2011, Physicians Postgraduate Press)

DOI

10.4088/JCP.09m05583blu

PMID

21294991

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: We examined the predictive power of the self-harm subscale of the Schedule for Nonadaptive and Adaptive Personality (SNAP) to identify suicide attempters in the Collaborative Longitudinal Study of Personality Disorders (CLPS). METHOD: The SNAP, a self-report personality inventory, was administered to 733 CLPS participants at baseline, of whom 701 (96%) had at least 6 months of follow-up data. Cox proportional hazards regression analyses were performed to examine the SNAP-self-harm subscale (SNAP-SH) in predicting the 129 suicide attempters over 8 years of follow-up. Possible moderators of prediction were examined, including borderline personality disorder, major depressive disorder (MDD), and substance use disorder. We also compared baseline administration of the SNAP-SH to subsequent administrations more proximal to the suicide attempt, and to a higher-order SNAP-negative temperament (SNAP-NT) subscale. Receiver operating characteristic analyses were conducted using suicide attempts (n = 58) over the first year of follow-up to provide reference points for sensitivity and specificity. RESULTS: The SNAP-SH demonstrated good predictive power for suicide attempts (hazard ratio = 1.28, P < .001) and appeared relatively consistent across borderline personality disorder, MDD, and substance use disorder diagnoses. Using more proximal scores did not increase predictive power. The SNAP-SH compared favorably to the predictive power of the higher-order SNAP-NT. Receiver operating characteristic analyses indicate several cutoff scores on the SNAP-SH that yield moderate to high sensitivity and specificity for predicting suicide attempts over the first year of follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: The SNAP-SH may be a useful screening instrument for risk of suicide attempts in nonpsychotic psychiatric patients.

Language: en