Affective Vulnerabilities and Self-Injury in Suicide

Abstract

The objective of this study was to test whether self-injury moderates the relationship between affective vulnerabilities (affective lability/affective intensity) and suicidal behavior. A total of 127 participants were administered structured diagnostic interviews and filled out questionnaires. The moderation effect was significant both for affective lability and affective intensity, with individuals reporting lower levels of affective vulnerability and a more extensive history of self-injury reporting more lifetime suicide attempts. These findings were generally replicated in a subsample of participants meeting diagnostic criteria for borderline personality disorder (n = 72). When accompanied by high levels of self-injury, low levels of affective vulnerabilities may paradoxically become a risk factor for suicidal behavior, perhaps by enabling individuals to persist in the innately frightening experience of a suicide attempt.

Keywords:

• affective intensity
• affective lability
• Axis II
• borderline personality disorder
• emotion dysregulation
• suicide

Acknowledgments

This research was supported, in part, by National Institute of Mental Health grant MH069627 (PI: Coffey).

Notes

Note. * = significant at p < .05 level; ** = significant a p < .01 level; ∧ = non-transformed mean, standard deviation, minimum, and maximum presented for ease of interpretation; Although report of non-transformed data is typically accompanied by presentation of median as measure of central tendency, the low base rate of self-injury and suicide within the sample resulted in a distribution in which the median was equal to 0. As such, the mean is presented.

Dependent variable = Lifetime number of suicide attempts.

Note. * = significant at p < .05 level; ** = significant at p < .01 level; Aff.Vulnerability = affective vulnerability assessed in particular regression equation.