Verbal Response Latency as a Behavioral Indicator of Diminished Wish to Live in a Clinical Sample of Active Duty Army Personnel with Recent Suicidal Ideation

Research on risk factors of suicide attempt has yielded little improvement in imminent risk detection for clinicians, due in part to the inherent limitations of self-report methodologies. Therefore, objective behavioral indicators of suicide risk that can be implemented practically with little cost in clinical settings are needed.The current study examined verbal response latency, measured as the length of time to answer a question asking about reasons for living (i.e.,Verbal response latency was significantly correlated with diminished wish to live at the participant level but was not significantly correlated with wish to die or overall severity of suicidal ideation.Verbal response latency may serve as an objective indicator of suicide risk. HighlightsResponse latency to a life construct may be an objective indicator of suicide riskDelayed response latency is indicative of diminished wish to livePathological mechanisms may manifest within dyadic interactions via verbal behaviors.