Religion as a Risk Factor for Suicide Attempt and Suicide Ideation Among Depressed Patients
Open accessAbstract
We aimed to examine the relationship between religion and suicide attempt and ideation. Three hundred twenty-one depressed patients were recruited from mood-disorder research studies at the New York State Psychiatric Institute. Participants were interviewed using the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM Disorders, Columbia University Suicide History form, Scale for Suicide Ideation, and Reasons for Living Inventory. Participants were asked about their religious affiliation, importance of religion, and religious service attendance. We found that past suicide attempts were more common among depressed patients with a religious affiliation (odds ratio, 2.25; p = 0.007). Suicide ideation was greater among depressed patients who considered religion more important (coefficient, 1.18; p = 0.026) and those who attended services more frequently (coefficient, 1.99; p = 0.001). We conclude that the relationship between religion and suicide risk factors is complex and can vary among different patient populations. Physicians should seek deeper understanding of the role of religion in an individual patient’s life in order to understand the person’s suicide risk factors more fully.
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Religion and spirituality play a major role in the suicidal path.
“Evidence shows that religion and spirituality play a major role in the suicidal path [1, 2].”
From Exploring the role of religion in the recovery experiences of suicide attempt survivors in Ghana (2023) · cites this paper as [1]
The Conclusion (page unavailable in our copy) reports associations between religious affiliation or practice and suicide attempts or ideation in 321 depressed and bipolar adults. It also calls the relationship complicated, while the Discussion cautions that the findings do not establish causation. The paper therefore supports religion’s relevance to suicide risk, but not the broader claim that religion and spirituality play a major role in the suicidal path generally; spirituality was not separately assessed. (LLM, conf=0.84)
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Cites
Assessment of suicidal intention: The Scale for Suicide Ideation.
Beck, A. T., Kovacs, M., & Weissman, A. (1979) · Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology · doi:10.1037//0022-006x.47.2.343 · Cited by 3,419 · see citing works
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Pargament, K. I., Smith, B. W., Koenig, H. G., & Perez, L. (1998) · Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion · doi:10.2307/1388152 · Cited by 2,425 · see citing works
Linehan, M. M., Goodstein, J. L., Nielsen, S. L., & Chiles, J. A. (1983) · Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-006x.51.2.276 · Cited by 1,083 · cited 1× · see citing works
“Suiciderelated factors were assessed using the Columbia University Suicide History form (Oquendo et al., 2003), the Scale for Suicide Ideation (Beck et al., 1979), and the Reasons for Living inventory (Linehan et al., 1983).”
MethodReligious affiliation and suicide attempt
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Cited by
Sorted by citations
Exploring the role of religion in the recovery experiences of suicide attempt survivors in Ghana
Osafo, J., Asare-Doku, W., & Akotia, C. S. (2023) · BMC Psychiatry · doi:10.1186/s12888-023-04674-3 · Cited by 15 · see citing works
“For instance, while church attendance may protect against suicidality, interpersonal difficulties with church members and beliefs, doubts and fear of punishment from God have been reported to be associated with poor mental health Introduction Evidence shows that religion and spirituality play a major role in the suici…”
Background
- Authors
- Lawrence, R. E., Brent, D., Mann, J. J., Burke, A. K., Grunebaum, M. F., Galfalvy, H. C., & Oquendo, M. A.
- Affiliations
- NewYork–Presbyterian Hospital (US)
- *Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University Medical Center and †New York–Presbyterian Hospital, New York, NY; ‡Department of Psychiatry, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, Pittsburgh, PA; and §Department of Psychiatry, New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, NY.
- Corresponding author
- Lawrence, Ryan E.
- Mann, J. John
- Burke, Ainsley K.
- Grunebaum, Michael F.
- Galfalvy, Hanga C.
- Venue
- Journal of Nervous & Mental Disease
- Published
- 2016-11
- Volume
- 204
- Issue
- 11
- Pages
- 845-850
- ISSN
- 0022-3018 (ISSN-L)
- 1539-736X
- PMC
- PMC4990512
- OpenAlex
- W2317778835
- Cited by
- 115
- References
- 6
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 49 · 2022: 10 · 2021: 8 · 2020: 17 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 9 · 2017: 1
- FWCI
- 7.14
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute of Mental Health (P50MH090964, R10MH056612, R01MH048514, R01MH056612)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Suicide and Self-Harm Studies
- Social Sciences › Health › Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Mental Health via Writing
- Keywords
- religion, suicide attempts, suicidal ideation, depression, suicide risk factors, religious affiliation, religious service attendance, reasons for living, mood disorders
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Depression, Female, Humans, Interview, Psychological, Male, Middle Aged, Religion, Religion and Psychology, Risk Factors, Suicide, Attempted, Suicidal Ideation
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