Self-Reported Interoceptive Sensibility Does Not Moderate the Relationship Between Eating Disorder Symptoms and Suicidal Thoughts and Behaviors

Past research has demonstrated a strong relationship between eating disorders (EDs) and suicidality (i.e., suicidal thoughts, plans, and attempts), and preliminary work within the framework of the interpersonal psychological theory of suicide (Joiner, 2007) suggests that potentially painful ED behaviors (binge eating, purging, fasting, excessive exercise) may contribute to increased risk of suicide through heightened pain tolerance and increased capability of suicide. However, additional explanations are needed for why only some individuals with EDs actually engage in suicidal behaviors (i.e., attempt suicide), whereas others do not. A growing body of literature suggests that interoceptive deficits (a disconnection from one’s own bodily sensations and emotions; IDs) might be a factor linking eating disorders and suicide. To better understand this relationship, the current study tests the moderating effects of self-reported IDs on the relations between ED behaviors and suicidality and past suicide attempts in a transdiagnostic ED sample (N = 181). We hypothesized that ED behaviors would directly relate to suicidality, but that IDs would moderate the relationship between ED behaviors and past suicide attempts, such that those high in IDs would demonstrate a stronger relationship between ED behaviors and suicide attempts. Contrary to our hypothesis, IDs did not moderate the relationship; instead, fasting and purging had significant and strong main effects on suicidality and past suicide attempts without moderation effects. Results suggest that fasting and purging may be important ED behaviors to consider in the relationship between EDs and suicidality. Future directions include further examining the relationship between IDs, suicidality, and EDs using measures of IDs that better encompass physical (as opposed to emotional) aspects of IDs.     

An Examination of the Impact of Racial and Ethnic Identity,Impostor Feelings,and Minority Status Stress on the Mental Health of Black College Students

This study examined ethnic identity, racial centrality, minority status stress, and impostor feelings as predictors of mental health in a sample of 218 Black college students. Ethnic identity was found to be a significant positive predictor of mental health, whereas minority status stress and impostor feelings were significant negative predictors. Although ethnic identity was the strongest predictor of mental health, racial centrality represented a nonsignificant, negative predictor. Counseling implications for Black college students are discussed. Este estudio examinó la identidad étnica, la centralidad racial, el estrés por estatus de minoría y los sentimientos de impostor como indicadores de salud mental en una muestra de 218 estudiantes universitarios negros. Se halló que la identidad étnica es un indicador positivo significativo de salud mental, mientras que el estrés por estatus de minoría y los sentimientos de impostor fueron indicadores negativos significativos. Aunque la identidad étnica fue el indicador más fuerte de salud mental, la centralidad racial representó un indicador negativo no significativo. Se discuten las implicaciones para la consejería de estudiantes universitarios negros.     

Late‐life Depression,Suicidal Ideation,and Attempted Suicide: The Role of Individual Differences in Maximizing,Regret, and Negative Decision Outcomes

Suicide rates are highest in adults of middle and older age. Research with psychiatric patients has shown that proneness to feel regret about past decisions can grow so intense that suicide becomes a tempting escape. Here, we examine the additional role of individual differences in maximizing, or the tendency to strive for the best decision, rather than one that is good enough. We provided individual‐difference measures of maximizing, regret proneness, and negative life decision outcomes (as reported on the Decision Outcome Inventory) to a nonpsychiatric control group, as well as three groups of psychiatric patients in treatment for suicide attempts, suicidal ideation, or non‐suicidal depression. We found that scores on the three individual‐difference measures were worse for psychiatric patients than for nonpsychiatric controls and were correlated to clinical assessments of depression, hopelessness, and suicidal ideation. More importantly, maximizing was associated with these clinical assessments, even after taking into account maximizers' worse life decision outcomes. Regret proneness significantly mediated those relationships, suggesting that maximizers could be at risk for clinical depression because of their proneness to regret. We discuss the theoretical relevance of our findings and their promise for clinical practice. Ultimately, late‐life depression and suicidal ideation may be treated with interventions that promote better decision making and regret regulation. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Spinoza on Lying and Suicide

Spinoza is often taken to claim that suicide is never a rational act, that a ‘free’ person acting by the guidance of reason will never terminate his/her own existence. Spinoza also defends the prima facie counterintuitive claim that the rational person will never act dishonestly. This second claim can, in fact, be justified when Spinoza's moral psychology and account of motivation are properly understood. Moreover, making sense of the free man's exception-less honesty in this way also helps to clarify how Spinoza should, and indeed does, recognize the possibility of rational suicide.     

Suicide risk assessment: Clinicians’ confidence in their professional judgment

Suicide risk assessment is a critical component of mental health practice for which the stakes are high and the outcomes uncertain. This research examines the consistency with which clinicians make determinations of suicide risk and factors influencing clinical confidence. Seventy-one social workers interviewed two standardized patients performing in scenarios depicting suicidal ideation, judged whether the patient required hospitalization, and completed standardized suicide risk assessment measures. Self-ratings and qualitative interviews explored participants’ confidence in their judgment of risk. Participants had highly divergent views regarding whether or not the risk of suicide was sufficiently high to require hospitalization. However, regardless of the ultimate decision reached, participants were equally confident when recommending either clinical course of action. The variation in risk assessment appraisals in this study, despite at times high rates of confidence in risk appraisals, speaks to the need for ongoing training, consultation, and increased decision support strategies.     

Acculturative stress and experiential avoidance: relations to depression,suicide, and anxiety symptoms among minority college students

Although college campuses represent strategic locations to address mental health disparity among minorities in the US, there has been strikingly little empirical work on risk processes for anxiety/depression among this population. The present investigation examined the interactive effects of acculturative stress and experiential avoidance in relation to anxiety and depressive symptoms among minority college students (n = 1,095; 78.1% female; M_age = 21.92, SD = 4.23; 15.1% African-American (non-Hispanic), 45.3% Hispanic, 32.5% Asian, and 7.1% other races/ethnicities. Results provided empirical evidence of an interaction between acculturative stress and experiential avoidance for suicidal, social anxiety, and anxious arousal symptoms among the studied sample. Inspection of the significant interactions revealed that acculturative stress was related to greater levels of suicidal symptoms, social anxiety, and anxious arousal among minority college students with higher, but not lower, levels of experiential avoidance. However, in contrast to prediction, there was no significant interaction for depressive symptoms. Together, these data provide novel empirical evidence for the clinically-relevant interplay between acculturative stress and experiential avoidance in regard to a relatively wide array of negative emotional states among minority college students.     

Cross-national variations in violence

This study tries to explain why modernization is positively associated with property offenses, while it is negatively correlated with violent offences. The explanation is based on sociobiology and on the distinction between r and K evolutionary strategies. It is argued that modern societies are more likely to benefit from channeling their aggressive drive to the relatively less serious property crimes. Another derivative from the same theoretical argument is the hypothesis that in modern societies lethal aggression would be directed toward the self (resulting in suicide) rather than toward others (a behavior which would lead to homicide).     

Role of serotonin in human aggressive behaviour

This study aimed to evaluate a peripheral serotonergic marker, ³H-imipramine (³H-IMI) binding to platelet membranes, in a group of severely aggressive subjects (A), institutionalized since childhood for mental retardation, as compared with suicide attempters (S) and healthy controls (H). The maximum binding capacity of ³H-IMI to platelet membranes was statistically lower in (A) and (S) than in (H). In addition, a statistically significant difference was observed between the Bmax values of aggressive subjects and those of suicide attempters. No changes in the dissociation constant (Kd) of IMI binding were observed. These data provide further supporting evidence for the hypothesis of an abnormality of the 5HT system in aggressive behaviour and suggest that such an abnormality, as reflected by platelet markers, is more severe in suicide attempters. © 1993 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

Suicide Signs on the Rorschach

This paper reviews the literature concerning the assessment of suicide using the Rorschach and updates the important developments since Goldfried, Stricker, and Weiner's comprehensive review of the literature in 1971. Special attention is given to those indicators which show the most support in the literature and are most efficient to use. The presence or absence of any of these signs in a patient's record should not be taken to signify the presence or absence of suicidal ideation. However, the presence of even one of these indicators does provide a warning to the clinician, indicating that further exploration in this area may be warranted. Knowledge of the many suicidal indicators on projective tests places the clinician in a better position to predict such destructive behavior and intervene appropriately.     

The statistical regression phenomenon: II. Application of a metamodel

The relevance of the traditional regression concept to measurement of change and to causal research is investigated by applying a metamodel for the concept as a frame of reference in a logical analysis of these two research fields. It is concluded that the concept is considerably less important than ordinarily maintained in the methodological research literature. As for measurement of change, only a special error case of the concept often constitutes a biasing factor, while all special cases are of little interest for describing true changes. Concerning causal research, the regression phenomenon will probably seldom constitute any threat to internal validity. The unjustified attention given to the concept in psychological research is probably mainly due to the fact that central assumptions have been overlooked and that a thorough logical analysis of the relevance issue has not been attempted previously.