Implicit measure of suicidal ideation in patients with depression

Abstract

The death/suicide implicit association test (IAT) may be more resilient to accurately assess suicide risk than self-reports. We examined the IAT in 130 patients with depression and 125 healthy controls, along with self-reported suicidal ideation. IAT could differentiate patients with suicide attempts from patients without suicide attempts and controls. IAT measures were significantly correlated to explicit suicidal ideation and clinical symptoms in patients. Moreover, the IAT-symptom correlations were significant in female but not male patients. The IAT showed promise as a valid tool to estimate suicide risk in patients with depression and may be particularly useful in female patients.

Acknowledgments

The authors thank all the participants and the clinical team on this project.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Natural Science Foundation Of China [81701322]; Humanity and Social Science Youth Foundation of Ministry of Education of China [17YJC190009; 17YJC190001]; Luzhou Science and Technology Bureau Project [2017-S-40 (7/18)]; Sichuan Applied Psychology Research Center Project [CSXL-182017]; Southwest Medical University [2018-ZRZD-015]; the joint project of Southwest Medical University & Affiliated Hospital of Southwest Medical University, Grant/Award Numbers [2015‐QB‐003 and 2015‐QB‐006]; Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province [HYX18024 and HYX18013].