The role of personality dimensions and trait anxiety in increasing the likelihood of suicide ideation in women during the perinatal period

Abstract

Introduction

Increasing amount of data reveal that suicide risk is a real phenomenon among perinatal women, determined by several other psychopathological conditions with depression being just one of them. This study aimed to investigate the role of personality dimensions on the occurrence of suicide ideation during the perinatal period.

Methods

A longitudinal prospective study was performed in pregnant women who were monitored at university-based obstetrical care units in our county. Recruited women were reassessed between 6 and 8 weeks into their postnatal period. Trait and state anxiety, five-factor based dimensions of personality, and depressive symptoms were assessed using established psychometric measures. Appropriate statistical analyses were conducted, depending on the distribution of variables.

Results

Significant levels of state anxiety (33.7% vs. 15.5%), depressive symptoms (19.8% vs. 8.5%), and suicide risk (13.9% vs. 6.3%) have halved in the postnatal period compared to the antenatal assessment. A lower level of education was associated with the presence of postnatal suicide ideation (p = .041), while an unemployed professional status was more frequent in pregnant women presenting antenatal suicide ideation (p = .021). Trait anxiety was predictive for the appearance of suicide ideation within the entire perinatal period assessed (p < .001 and p = .007, respectively). Agreeableness and conscientiousness predicted antenatal suicide ideation (p = .033 and p = .032, respectively).

Discussions

Different dimensions of personality may play a contributing role in the development of suicide ideation in perinatal women. Consequently, personality dimensions and trait anxiety, not only depressive symptoms, should be investigated when attempting to identify perinatal women at risk of suicide.

Keywords:

• Suicide ideation
• dimensional personality

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Current knowledge on this subject

• The presence of suicidal ideation in perinatal women is a reality that, although less prevalent, may have a devastating impact on family members.

• The presence of suicidal ideation in perinatal women can be part of several psychiatric disorders and is not limited to depressive disorders.

• The presence of suicidal ideation in perinatal women can be also analyzed from a personality perspective, especially in association with other psychiatric nosological factors.

What this study adds

• To our knowledge, this is the first study performing a complex analysis of association between presence of suicidal ideation and the five-factor of personality dimensions in women during the entire perinatal period.

• Our study is the first to evaluate the frequency of suicidal ideation in perinatal women and its dynamics during the perinatal period in a sample extracted from the Romanian population.

• Our study has highlighted that different stable patterns of personality can make the difference between perinatal women with suicidal ideation and those without, beyond the presence of depressive and anxiety symptoms.