Citation

Latham AE, Prigerson HG. Suicide Life Threat. Behav. 2004; 34(4): 350-362.

Affiliation

The Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, CT, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2004, American Association of Suicidology, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1521/suli.34.4.350.53737

PMID

15585457

PMCID

PMC1459278

Abstract

The influence of complicated grief (CG) on suicidality among bereaved adults was examined. The Yale Evaluation of Suicidality scale and the Inventory of Complicated Grief-Revised were administered to 309 bereaved adults in face-to-face interviews conducted at baseline (6.2 months post-loss) and at follow-up (10.8 months post-loss). Cross-sectionally, CG was associated with a 6.58 (95% CI: 1.74-18.0) times greater likelihood of "high suicidality" at baseline, and an 11.30 (95% CI: 3.33-38.10) times greater risk of high suicidality at follow-up, after controlling for gender, race, major depressive disorder (MDD), posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and social support. Longitudinally, CG at baseline was associated with an 8.21 (95% CI: 2.49-27.0) times greater likelihood of high suicidality at follow-up, controlling for the above confounders. The study results indicate that CG substantially heightened the risk of suicidality after controlling for important confounders such as MDD and PTSD, suggesting that CG poses an independent psychiatric risk for suicidal thoughts and actions.

Language: en