University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, USA.
Suicide Life Threat Behav. 2017 Dec;47(6):718-722. doi: 10.1111/sltb.12328. Epub 2017 Feb 2.
Hopelessness is one of the most commonly cited risk factors for suicidal behaviors. However, several retrospective studies suggest that hopelessness, while strongly correlated with suicide ideation, does not distinguish attempters from ideators without attempts. This study is the first to utilize a prospective design to disambiguate the relationship of hopelessness to ideation versus attempts. Participants were 142 depressed patients followed up over 10 years. Hopelessness and suicidality (ideation and attempts) were assessed using validated questionnaires and structured interviews. Both retrospective and prospective analyses revealed that hopelessness was higher among those reporting any suicidality (ideation or attempts) compared with nonsuicidal individuals. However, hopelessness failed to meaningfully distinguish attempters from ideators in both retrospective and prospective analyses. Taken together with results from previous studies, our findings suggest hopelessness is best conceptualized as a risk factor for suicide ideation but not progression from ideation to attempts.
绝望是自杀行为最常被引用的风险因素之一。然而，几项回顾性研究表明，尽管绝望与自杀意念强烈相关，但它并不能区分有自杀意念但没有尝试过自杀的人与尝试过自杀的人。这项研究首次利用前瞻性设计来厘清绝望与意念和尝试之间的关系。参与者为 142 名接受了 10 多年随访的抑郁患者。使用经过验证的问卷和结构化访谈评估了绝望和自杀意念（意念和尝试）。回顾性和前瞻性分析均显示，与非自杀者相比，有任何自杀意念（意念或尝试）的人报告的绝望程度更高。然而，无论是回顾性还是前瞻性分析，绝望都未能在尝试自杀者和有自杀意念者之间做出有意义的区分。与以前的研究结果相结合，我们的发现表明，绝望最好被概念化为自杀意念的风险因素，而不是从意念发展到尝试自杀。
