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Deficits in Mentalization Predict Suicide Risk Among Psychiatric Inpatients

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2020

M. Pompili ,
M. Innamorati ,
D. Erbuto ,
M. Amore  and
P. Girardi
M. Pompili
Affiliation:
Department of Neurosciences Mental Health and Sensory Organs, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy
M. Innamorati
Affiliation:
Department of Human Sciences, European University of Rome, Roma, Italy
D. Erbuto
Affiliation:
Department of Neurosciences Mental Health and Sensory Organs, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy
M. Amore
Affiliation:
Section of Psychiatry Department of Neuroscience Ophthalmology Genetics and Infant Maternal Science, University of Genoa, Genova, Italy
P. Girardi
Affiliation:
Department of Neurosciences Mental Health and Sensory Organs, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy

Abstract

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Introduction

Suicide is a major public health issue.

Objectives

Mentalization is a form of imaginative mental activity about others or oneself that may shed light on the phenomenology of suicide.

Aims

To assess the role of a number of variables in suicide risk.

Methods

Participants were 156 (73 men and 83 women) adult psychiatric inpatients (age range = 18/74 year). Most of the patients had a major mood disorder (26.3% BD-I, 3.2% BD-II, and 11.5 MDD), psychosis (16.7%), or a schizoaffective disorder (20.5%). All the patients were administered the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI) for assessing diagnosis and suicide risk, and the Impact of event scale, Mentalization Questionnaire, Childhood Trauma Questionnaire. Some patients (18.6%) were admitted for a recent suicide attempt and 34.6% had attempted suicide in the past.

Results

At the MINI, 44.9% of the patients resulted at a moderate to high risk of suicide, and 55.1% at no or low risk of suicide with no difference for sociodemographic variables (sex and age) and diagnosis, but they differed for mentalization and symptoms of intrusions and avoidance caused by a traumatic event. Groups also did not differ for self-reported childhood trauma. Only mentalization was independently associated with higher suicide risk, and patients with moderate to severe risk of suicide were 1.7 times more likely to report more mentalization deficits than those with no or low risk of suicide.

Conclusions

Our study supports the notion that the investigation of mentalization among patients may help in proper assessment of suicide risk.

Disclosure of interest

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Type
e-Poster Walk: Psychopathology and Psychotherapy
Information
European Psychiatry , Volume 41 , Issue S1: Abstract of the 25th European Congress of Psychiatry , April 2017 , pp. S264 - S265
Copyright
Copyright © European Psychiatric Association 2017
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