Interpersonal-psychological theory of suicide: Study on 178 medical students

Objectives. - The current paper presents firstly the Interpersonal Psychological Theory of Suicide (IPTS) and its interest in the risk of suicide in physicians and/or medical students and secondly an original study on 178 medical students. Methods. - In total, 178 medical students of the Universite Libre de Bruxelles filled out an ad hoc questionnaire rating suicidal ideations (life-time), recent suicidal plans and recent suicidal ideations rated by the 9th item of the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI). The subjects completed the French version of the Interpersonal Needs Questionnaire (INQ) rating Perceived burdensomeness and Thwarted belongingness and the Acquired Capability for Suicide Scale (ACSS) as well as the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II). Among the 178 medical students, 95 had no suicide risk, 24 had life-time suicidal ideation, 28 had recent suicidal ideations and 26 had recent suicidal plans. The four groups were compared for gender and age as well as for the different rating scales using Chi(2) tests or analyses of variance (ANOVA). Results. - The four groups had no significant differences for age, gender and scores on the ACSS. ANOVA revealed significant differences for perceived burdensomeness, thwarted belongingness and depression. To control the potential effect of depression, analyses of covariance (ANCOVA) were done taking as covariate a subscale of the BDI-II rating the cognitive component of depression. The two ANCOVA were significant. Post hoc tests comparing two by two the different groups reported that students with recent suicidal ideations or suicidal plans have significantly higher thwarted belongingness than students without suicide risk or students with life time suicidal ideations. Moreover, higher level of perceived burdensomeness was found only in students with suicidal plans comparatively with the three other groups. Conclusion. - High levels of thwarted belongingness and perceived burdensomeness characterize medical students with recent suicidal ideations or suicidal plans independently of the level of depression. (C) 2020 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

This paper presents a study on suicide risk among medical students, finding that high levels of thwarted belongingness and perceived burdensomeness characterize students with recent suicidal ideations or plans.