Preventing comorbidity between distress and suicidality: a network analysis

Suicidality among individuals between 10 and 35 years of age may be poised to exert massive burdens on society through decreased economic productivity and increased incidence of chronic physical conditions in the individuals’ later years, thereby necessitating early prevention of suicide. While research suggests that the pathway to suicidality may begin from episodes of psychological distress, such pathway may involve complex interplays between intermediary psychiatric symptoms and external stimuli that are not easily delineated through conventional means. This study applies the network approach to psychopathology to elucidate this complexity. Comorbidity between psychological distress and suicidality in 1968 community-dwelling individuals is analyzed with regularized partial correlation networks to identify their bridge symptoms and links. Temporal relationships between symptoms are analyzed through temporal symptom network formed from 453 individuals who completed subsequent follow-up surveys. Network analysis shows that feelings of hopelessness and the presence of suicidal ideation are the strongest bridge symptoms in the comorbidity symptom network, and form the only prominent link that bridges psychological distress and suicidality. Effects of sleep troubles, anxiety, and poor social relationships on suicidal ideation appear to be mediated by hopelessness. The same observations hold among individuals with and without diagnoses of psychiatric disorders, as well as young people (10–24 year-olds) and young adults (25–35 year-olds). The edge between hopelessness and suicidal ideation remains the strongest bridge link after controlling for effects of symptoms from the previous time point. Findings here provide an evidence base for both professional training in caregiving professions as well as gatekeeper training in community members to emphasize more on how to effectively recognize hopelessness, and instill hope, in young people and young adults for various types of distress.