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The present study examined the psychometric properties and construct validity of scores derived from the Interpersonal Needs Questionnaire (INQ) using latent variable modeling with 5 independent samples varying in age and level of psychopathology. The INQ was derived from the interpersonal theory of suicide and was developed to measure thwarted belongingness and perceived burdensomeness--both proximal causes of desire for suicide. Results support that thwarted belongingness and perceived burdensomeness are distinct but related constructs and that they can be reliably measured. Further, multiple-group analyses were consistent with invariance for young versus older adults and nonclinical versus clinical populations, thereby supporting the relevance of these constructs to diverse populations. Finally, both constructs demonstrated convergent associations with related interpersonal constructs--including loneliness and social support for belongingness and social worth and death ideation for burdensomeness--as well as prospective associations with suicidal ideation. (Contains 6 tables, 3 figures and 1 footnote.)

ABSTRACT Prior research has reported that negative urgency was positively associated with both the acquired capability for suicide and lifetime number of suicide attempts. Given the range of outcomes associated with negative urgency, we hypothesized that that prior work linking negative urgency both suicidal behavior and the acquired capability for suicide might be better accounted for by dysregulated behaviours. Results supported our hypotheses, as the addition of dysregulated behaviours, many of which could be considered painful and/or provocative, reduced those relationships to non-significance. These findings indicate that specific behaviours rather than negative urgency itself increase risk for the acquired capability or suicidal behaviour. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Each year, a substantial proportion of trainees who enter the U.S. Air Force (USAF) Basic Military Training (BMT) are unable to complete training. Reentry to civilian life poses significant challenges, including finding employment, establishing a new career path, and paying for education. To our knowledge, no study has examined the association of discharge from USAF BMT and mental health symptoms. Utilizing a sample of 85 individuals discharged from USAF BMT for reasons other than mental health concerns, the present study aimed to: (1) characterize the severity of current depression and anxiety symptoms; (2) examine the relationship between the severity of current depression and anxiety symptoms and sociodemographic variables; and (3) determine whether or not a trainee agreed with the decision to be discharged from BMT is associated with differing severities of depression or anxiety symptoms.Materials and Methods: Participants were individuals who were prematurely discharged from USAF BMT for reasons other than mental health issues. Premature discharge is defined as any trainee who was unable to complete BMT in the USAF and was subsequently sent home. Participants were recruited from online Facebook groups for individuals who were prematurely discharged from USAF BMT. Participants were administered a battery of self-report questionnaires through a web-based survey platform. A structured demographic overview was administered to all participants to assess for age, gender, reason for discharge, amount of time spent in BMT, amount of time spent in medical hold, and whether or not the trainee agreed with the decision to be discharged. The Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) was used to assess current symptoms consistent with depression. The Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) was used to assess current symptoms consistent with anxiety. Descriptive statistics were used to assess overall depression and anxiety rates, and analyses of covariance (ANCOVAs) were used to analyze group differences. This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) at Florida State University (FSU).Results: In total, 85 participants (42.4% = female) were accounted for in these data. Regarding depression symptom severity, 58.8% of participants (n = 50) indicated moderate or higher levels of depression symptoms. Regarding anxiety symptoms, 45.9% of participants (n = 39) indicated moderate or higher levels of anxiety symptoms. There were no significant differences reported regarding depression or anxiety symptoms across gender, age, amount of time spent in BMT, and amount of time spent in medical hold. Significant differences were found between depression and anxiety symptoms and whether or not a trainee agreed with the decision to be discharged from the USAF, such that trainees who did not agree with this decision reported higher levels of depression and anxiety symptoms.Conclusions: The findings of this study indicate that this population of trainees who were prematurely discharged from USAF BMT for reasons other than mental health concerns has high levels of depression and anxiety symptoms. Discharge from BMT may be associated with substantial distress when the individual disagrees with the reason for discharge. Enhanced procedures and continued research regarding their postdischarge well-being seem warranted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Psychotherapy access, utilization, retention, and effectiveness require continued improvement, especially for groups for whom availability and outcomes may be currently suboptimal, including ethnoracial minorities. Further, ethnoracial status' intersectionality with other identity variables (e.g., gender) may relate to structural barriers to care and effectiveness of care, an area in need of further research., Method: The Florida State University Psychology Clinic, a low-cost population-facing treatment center, has routinely collected clinically relevant information on all consenting clients, including severity of clinical presentation at intake and over time, number of therapy sessions attended and of no-shows, premature termination, demographics, etc. A large sample of clients ( N = 2,076; 57% women; 67.9% non-Hispanic White) on whom we collected and entered at least some data, though missing data were common, has accrued. We conducted chi-square tests to examine treatment utilization gaps, analysis of variance to measure differences in intake severity, and analysis of covariance to measure differences in treatment effectiveness., Results: Based on the percentages of ethnoracial minority groups with mental disorders in the broader local community, we are falling short in outreach to Black clients, and when we do engage them, we retain them suboptimally. Once well engaged, however, results across groups suggest few differences in outcomes by ethnoracial status, gender, or their intersection. Ethnoracial match was associated with more sessions attended in Black people., Conclusions: Psychotherapy effectiveness has the potential to be optimized for everyone, and a promising direction in this regard is the case conceptualization of a cultural formulation interview and cultural humility mindset. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Given the emerging body of literature demonstrating the validity of the interpersonal-psychological theory of suicide (IPTS), and the importance of increasing our understanding of the development of risk factors associated with suicidal behavior, it seems worthwhile both to expand IPTS research via Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2-Restructured Form (MMPI-2-RF) correlates and to expand the availability of methods by which to assess the constructs of the IPTS. The present study attempted to do so in a large adult outpatient mental health sample by (a) inspecting associations between the IPTS constructs and the substantive scales of the MMPI-2-RF and (b) exploring the utility of MMPI-2-RF scale-based algorithms of the IPTS constructs. Correlates between the IPTS constructs and the MMPI-2-RF scales scores largely followed a pattern consistent with theory-based predictions, and we provide preliminary evidence that the IPTS constructs can be reasonably approximated using theoretically based MMPI-2-RF substantive scales. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Background: Oquendo and colleagues (Oquendo, Baca-García, Mann, & Giner, 2008; Oquendo & Currier, 2009) recommend that DSM-V emphasize suicide risk assessment on a sixth axis, thereby increasing regularity of suicide risk assessments., Aims: We propose that evidence of nonredundancy with Axis V - Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) is one piece of data that can serve as a starting point for a line of research establishing incremental predictive utility for a separate suicide risk assessment in the DSM framework., Methods: A standardized suicide risk assessment protocol, measures of depressive, anxious, and eating disordered symptomatology, as well as an index of comorbidity were administered to a sample of 412 adult outpatients., Results: Our data indicate that data from standardized suicide risk assessments are associated with indices of symptomatology severity as well as comorbidity, controlling for GAF., Conclusions: These results support the nonredundancy of the assessments and suggest the utility of longitudinal investigations of the predictive utility of a sixth DSM axis in the assessment of suicide risk.

We present data from two studies that aimed to investigate stigma against suicide. In Study 1, we employed Milgram et al.'s (1965) "lost letter" technique. We predicted that fewer letters addressed to a fictitious organization with the word "suicide" in its name would be returned than letters addressed to fictitious heart disease or diabetes organizations, presumably due to stigma. Contrary to expectation, there were no differences in the percentage of letters returned for each condition, despite power to detect small effects. In Study 2 we compared scores on the Suicide Opinion Questionnaire (SOQ; Domino, Gibson, Poling, & Westlake, 1980) from a study published in 1988 (Domino, MacGregor, & Hannah, 1988) to scores from a study conducted 19 years later. Results demonstrated reduced stigma toward suicide, with the belief that suicide is morally bad exhibiting the largest change., ((c) 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

Although the significance of poor physical health for suicide risk is well established, the potential relevance of physical disability, as distinct from diseases and traumas that give rise to disability, has received little attention. Prior evidence suggests the possible utility of the stress process theoretical model for understanding variations in risk for suicide ideation and the contribution of physical disability to such risk. In this article, we examine the independent and joint explanatory significance of physical disability and components of the stress process model for risk of suicide ideation. Data from an ethnically diverse and representative sample of disabled and nondisabled adults (n = 1,768) reveal that physical disability is associated with a greater risk of lifetime suicidal ideation.

Background: Although there has been a tremendous amount of research examining the risk conferred for suicide by depression in general, relatively little research examines the risk conferred by specific forms of depressive illness (e.g., dysthymic disorder, single episode versus recurrent major depressive disorder [MDD]). The purpose of the current study was to examine differences in suicidal ideation, clinician-rated suicide risk, suicide attempts, and family history of suicide in a sample of outpatients diagnosed with various forms of depressive illness., Methods: To accomplish this aim, we conducted a cluster analysis using the aforementioned suicide-related variables in a sample of 494 outpatients seen between January 2001 and July 2007 at the Florida State University Psychology Clinic. Patients were diagnosed using DSM-IV criteria., Results: Two distinct clusters emerged that were indicative of lower and higher risk for suicide. After controlling for the number of comorbid Axis I and Axis II diagnoses, the only depressive illness that significantly predicted cluster membership was recurrent MDD, which tripled an individual's likelihood of being assigned to the higher risk cluster., Limitations: The use of a cross-sectional design; the relatively low suicide risk in our sample; the relatively small number of individuals with double depression., Conclusions: Our results demonstrate the importance of both chronicity and severity of depression in terms of predicting increased suicide risk. Among the various forms of depressive illness examined, only recurrent MDD appeared to confer greater risk for suicide.

The goal of this study was to examine differences in the factor structure of borderline personality disorder symptoms among different ethnic groups. The authors obtained information regarding ethnic identity and endorsement of borderline personality disorder criteria for an ethnically diverse community sample of 1140 young adult subjects from south Florida. Using this information the authors conducted an exploratory factor analysis examining differences between Caucasian, Hispanic and African American groups. A principal-components factor analysis (PCA) with Varimax rotation for each ethnic group revealed a reasonably generalizable four-factor structure: affective dysregulation, cognitive disturbance, disturbed relatedness and behavioral dysregulation. The emergence of a four-factor structure across three separate, relatively large samples suggests that the factors obtained have merit. However, the loadings of some BPD symptoms, such as impulsivity, varied for each ethnic group. The results of this study indicate that ethnic variations in borderline personality disorder should be considered during assessment and treatment of this disorder. Also, future research should examine if this same factor structure holds for ethnic minorities with BPD diagnoses, examine ethnic differences in the etiology and maintenance of BPD symptomatology, and explore the effects that these differences might have in treatment settings.

Objective: There is a paucity of research examining eating disorder symptoms among middle-aged women., Method: This prospective study assessed the stability of bulimic symptoms and 5 associated variables (perfectionism, depressive symptoms, self-esteem, anxiety symptoms, and perceived weight status) in a sample of 150 middle-aged women (mean age = 45.19 years) over a 2.5-year time period. In addition, interrelations among bulimic, anxiety, and depressive symptoms were assessed., Results: Results suggested that all 6 bulimia-related variables remained significantly stable over 2.5 years. In addition, notable relations between Time 1 and Time 2 variables emerged (e.g., anxious symptoms at Time 1 predicted bulimic symptoms at Time 2)., Conclusion: Thus, the results indicate that bulimic symptoms exist in middle-aged women, and that they remain relatively stable over a 2.5-year time period. Clinical implications for middle-aged women with eating disorder symptoms are discussed., (2006 by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

This study examined the tripartite model of depression and anxiety in 131 psychiatric outpatients, ages 55-87. Confirmatory factor analyses revealed that a 3-factor model provided an adequate fit to the observed data, that the 3-factor model was empirically superior to 1- or 2-factor models, and that the 3-factor structure obtained in the current sample of older adult outpatients converged with that obtained on a separate, younger 'sample. Negative affect was significantly related to depression and anxiety symptoms and syndromes, and positive affect was more highly related to depression than anxiety symptoms and syndromes. Ways for taking into account possible age-associated differences in emotion in older adults and thus improving the conceptual model of anxiety and depression are briefly noted., (Copyright 2004 American Psychological Association)

This study examined the relation between elevation of the infrequency (F) scale on the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2) and the classification of psychological disorders as chronic or acute in an outpatient mental health setting. MMPI-2 and clinician rating data at time of intake were considered for 158 adult patients from an outpatient clinic. The results indicate that elevation on the F scale is associated with more chronic disorders even after the influence of other variables, such as age and comorbidity of other disorders, is statistically accounted for These results are discussed in terms of the utility and incremental validity of including the F scale as part of diagnostic screening.

Borrowing from past conceptual work on the unique characteristics of multiple suicide attempters, as well on the effect of previous suicidal and depressive experience on later functioning, the authors hypothesized that negative events would be related to intensity of suicidal crises among never- and first-attempters but not among multiple attempters and that negative events would be related to duration of suicidal crises among multiple attempters but not among never- and first-attempters. Data on past suicide history, negative life events, and clinician- and self-rated suicidal symptoms were collected on 326 suicidal patients, 249 of whom were available at 1-month follow-up. Findings conformed to prediction. Previous suicidal experience alters the parameters of current suicidal crises. Implications of these findings for suicide risk and clinical assessment and management are discussed.