Familial Aggregation of Suicide Explained by Cluster B Traits: A Three-Group Family Study of Suicide Controlling for Major Depressive Disorder (original) (raw)
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Journal of psychiatric research, 2018
Suicidal behavior in first-degree relatives of people diagnosed with major depressive disorder (MDD) increases the risk of suicidal behavior. Such an effect may be the result of genetic risk factors or environmental ones, including imitation, or both. Surprisingly few studies have examined this question and thus, there still is little known about the effect of first-degree family history of suicidal behavior on the type of suicidal behavior and profile of risk factors related to the diathesis for suicidal behavior. Even less is known about intra-familial risk transmission. Patients with MDD (n = 252) experiencing a current major depressive episode and who had a previous suicide attempt were studied. Those with and without a family history of first-degree relatives who had made a suicide attempt or died by suicide were compared across clinical and suicide-related characteristics. Suicide attempters with (FDR, n = 59) and without a first-degree relative with suicide attempt or suicide...
Psychiatry Research, 2004
The goals of the study were (1) to determine the association between parental and offspring suicidal ideation and suicide attempts among adult offspring in a general community sample, and (2) to examine the extent to which this association can be explained by mediating processes of mental disorders. Data were drawn from the National Comorbidity Survey (ns8098), a representative household sample of adults aged 15-54 in the United States. The relationships between suicidal ideation and suicide attempts among adult offspring and suicidal ideation and suicide attempt in their parents, compared with those in parents not characterized by suicidal ideation or suicide attempts, were calculated using multiple logistic regression analyses. Analyses were adjusted for differences in sociodemographic characteristics and for mental disorders. Results showed that parental suicidal ideation was associated with a significantly increased likelihood of suicidal ideation wORs1.7 (1.2, 2.5)x and suicide attempt wORs1.4 (0.9, 2.1)x among offspring. Parental suicide attempt was associated with increased odds of suicidal ideation wORs2.0 (1.4, 2.9)x and suicide attempt wORs2.2 (1.4, 3.4)x among offspring. Comorbid mental disorders contributed to the strength of these associations, but with the exception of the link between parental suicidal ideation and offspring suicide attempt, all remained statistically significant even after adjustment. These data provide initial evidence of familial linkages (parent-offspring) of suicidal ideation and behavior among a sample of adults representative of the US population. The data suggest that comorbid mental disorders contribute to these associations but do not completely account for them. The findings are consistent with and extend results from family, clinical, and high-risk studies suggesting that a familial risk of suicidal ideation and suicide behavior occurs in the general population. Implications for prevention and future research are discussed.
American Journal of Psychiatry, 2007
Objective-The authors sought to identify clinical predictors of new-onset suicidal behavior in children of parents with a history of mood disorder and suicidal behavior. Method-In a prospective study of offspring of parents with mood disorders, 365 offspring (average age, 20 years) of 203 parents were followed for up to 6 years. Offspring with incident suicide attempts or emergency referrals for suicidal ideation or behavior ("incident events") were compared with offspring without such events on demographic and clinical characteristics. Multivariate analyses were conducted to examine predictors of incident events and predictors of time to incident event. Results-Offspring of probands who had made suicide attempts, compared with offspring of parents with mood disorders who had not made attempts, had a higher rate of incident suicide attempts (4.1% versus 0.6%, relative risk=6.5) as well as overall suicidal events (8.3% versus 1.9%, relative risk=4.4). Mood disorder and self-reported impulsive aggression in offspring and a history of sexual abuse and self-reported depression in parents predicted earlier time to, and greater hazard of, an incident suicidal event. Conclusions-In offspring of parents with mood disorders, precursors of early-onset suicidal behavior include mood disorder and impulsive aggression as well as parental history of suicide attempt, sexual abuse, and self-reported depression. These results suggest that efforts to prevent the familial transmission of early-onset suicidal behavior by targeting these domains could reduce the morbidity of suicidal behavior in high-risk youths. The literature on suicide demonstrates, on the basis of adoption, twin, and family studies, that suicidal behavior aggregates in families and that the familial transmission of suicidal behavior cannot be explained by the transmission of major psychiatric disorders alone (1). However, nearly all of these family genetic studies are cross-sectional, which means that little is known about the precursors of suicidal behavior that place offspring of suicidal individuals at increased risk of suicidal behavior and the causal models to explain how suicidal behavior is transmitted from parent to child. Nevertheless, the literature provides clues as to the mechanisms and precursors of familial transmission of suicidal behavior. Longitudinal community studies show that precursors of youthful suicidal behavior include depression, suicidal ideation, behavioral symptoms, child
Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 2009
Objective-Only a few studies have examined whether a family history of suicide influences the severity of suicidal acts and the results have been inconsistent. The current study aimed to examine whether a family history of suicidal acts predicts severity of suicide attempts. Method-190 suicide attempters aged 18-75 years with a lifetime history of major depression were assessed for first-degree family history of suicidality and severity of suicide attempts (number and lethality of prior suicide attempts and age at first attempt). Results-Regression analyses indicate that a positive family history of suicidal behaviors predicts a greater number of suicide attempts. Reasons for living predict number and lethality of prior attempts. Conclusion-It is critical to assess for family history of suicidal behavior when treating depressed suicide attempters as it may serve as an indicator of the risk of repeat suicide attempt and as a guide for treatment.
Archives of Suicide Research, 2016
Self-rated depression and hopelessness severity are predictors of suicide attempt in major depression. This study evaluated whether: (1) greater self-rated distress relative to severity of clinician-rated depression is a trait; (2) that trait is familial; and (3) that trait is linked to familial transmission of suicidal behavior. A total of 285 mood disorder probands and 457 offspring were assessed twice, at least 1 year apart. Family and subject intra-class correlations for self-report depression and hopelessness, controlling for clinician-rated depression severity, were computed. Mixed general linear models determined offspring-proband correlations. Within-individual intra class correlation (ICC) for depression-hopelessness was 37.8% (bootstrap 95% CI: 31.0-46.3%). Parent-offspring ICC was 10.7% (bootstrap 95% CI: 3.5-17.8%). Suicide attempt concordant parent-offspring correlation for subjective depression was positive, but negative for attempter parent and nonattempter offspring (p = .0213 for slope interaction). Pessimism was greater in proband or offspring attempters than proband or offspring nonattempters (p < .05). Self-reported hopelessness is partly trait-dependent, and there is modest familial transmission of self-reported depression linked to suicidal behavior that may partly explain familial transmission of suicidal behavior.
Journal of Affective Disorders, 2008
Background: Clinicians routinely ask patients with non-psychotic major depressive disorder (MDD) about their family history of suicide. It is unknown, however, whether patients with a family member who committed suicide differ from those without such a history. Methods: Patients were recruited for the STAR ⁎ D multicenter trial. At baseline, patients were asked to report first-degree relatives who had died from suicide. Differences in demographic and clinical features for patients with and without a family history of suicide were assessed. Results: Patients with a family history of suicide (n = 142/4001; 3.5%) were more likely to have a family history of MDD, bipolar disorder, or any mood disorder, and familial substance abuse disorder, but not suicidal thoughts as compared to those without such a history. The group with familial suicide had a more pessimistic view of the future and an earlier age of onset of MDD. No other meaningful differences were found in depressive symptoms, severity, recurrence, depressive subtype, or daily function. Conclusions: A history of completed suicide in a family member was associated with minimal clinical differences in the crosssectional presentation of outpatients with MDD. Limitations of the study include lack of information about family members who had attempted suicide and the age of the probands when their family member died. STAR⁎D assessments were limited to those needed to ascertain diagnosis and treatment response and did not include a broader range of psychological measures.