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Exposure to suicide in the family: Suicide risk and psychache in individuals who have lost a family member by suicide
Author(s) -
Campos Rui C.,
Holden Ronald R.,
Santos Sara
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
journal of clinical psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.124
H-Index - 119
eISSN - 1097-4679
pISSN - 0021-9762
DOI - 10.1002/jclp.22518
Subject(s) - psychology , family member , suicide attempt , suicide prevention , clinical psychology , portuguese , intervention (counseling) , psychiatry , human factors and ergonomics , poison control , medicine , medical emergency , family medicine , linguistics , philosophy
Objective The aim of the present study was to compare a sample of Portuguese individuals exposed to suicide in their families with a control group, for lifetime suicidality. This study also evaluated the incremental value of psychache (i.e., extreme psychological pain) in determining suicide risk beyond the contribution associated with having lost a family member by suicide. Method A total of 225 community adults participated. Two groups were defined: a group exposed to suicide ( n = 53), and a control group ( n = 172). Results Results demonstrated that groups did significantly differ on the total score of the Suicide Behaviors Questionnaire‐Revised (SBQ‐R), on the four individual SBQ‐R items, and on psychache. Results from a hierarchical multiple regression analysis demonstrated that having lost a family member by suicide and the construct of psychache each provided a significant unique contribution to explaining variance in suicide risk. The interaction between group membership and psychache also provided a further enhancement to the statistical prediction of suicide risk. Conclusion Findings are discussed with regard to their implications for clinical intervention and postvention.