Suicide Attempts Associated With Externalizing Psychopathology in an Epidemiological Sample

OBJECTIVE: Borrowing from recent dimensional models of psychopathology, the authors conducted analyses that optimized the common variance shared by internalizing (depression, anxiety) and externalizing (antisocial personality, substance dependence) disorders in statistically predicting suicidal behaviors. These relationships were analyzed in a large epidemiological sample, thus allowing for the examination of gender differences in risk for suicide attempts associated with psychopathology. METHOD: The data were obtained from the Colorado Social Health Survey. Participants (N=4,745) were a community sample recruited by household address. Structured clinical interviews were used to obtain lifetime diagnostic and symptom count information. Symptom counts were included in a factor analysis that yielded two main dimensions of psychopathology: internalizing and externalizing. These factors were used in hierarchical logistic regression analyses to predict history of suicide attempts associated with the presence of internalizing symptoms, externalizing symptoms, and comorbid internalizing and externalizing symptoms. RESULTS: After the investigators controlled for the presence of internalizing symptoms and the comorbidity of internalizing and externalizing symptoms, externalizing symptoms were related to suicidal behavior in both men and women, although comorbidity was most predictive of suicide attempts among women, compared to men. CONCLUSIONS: Suicidal behavior among individuals with externalizing symptoms is not necessarily a result of comorbid depressive or other internalizing disorder. Thus, persons exhibiting antisocial behaviors should receive rigorous assessment for suicidal ideation and behavior.