Lifetime History of Suicide Attempts among Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity State Hospital Inpatients: The Roles of past Harmful Substance Use and Current Social Support

Abstract

This study tested current perceived social support (CPSS) as a moderator of the relation between previous substance use (PSU) and lifetime suicide attempt (SA) history among 200 NGRI inpatients. Results indicated no significant CPSS main effect. PSU was associated with greater odds of multiple prior lifetime SA. Moderation indicated those low in PSU but high in CPSS were least likely to report multiple prior lifetime SA. Conversely, NGRI inpatients with high CPSS and high PSU were most likely to report multiple lifetime SA. Our study suggests CPSS and PSU assessments may inform suicide risk assessments and interventions among NGRI inpatients.

Keywords:

• Criminal responsibility
• social support
• suicide attempt
• suicidal behavior
• substance use

Notes

1 It should be noted that SAQ Criminal History and SAQ Antisocial Personality were not included in the analysis due to unsatisfactory internal consistency coefficients (SAQ Criminal History Cronbach's alpha = .47; SAQ Antisocial Personality Cronbach's alpha = .64). Additionally, the other SAQ scales that were not included in the primary analyses were not significantly associated with lifetime suicide attempt history status. Therefore, these other SAQ scales were excluded.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported, in part, by the National Institute of Mental Health (T32 MH020061; L30 MH120575; R01 MH115922), which funded the first- and second-author’s time.