People With Disabilities at Elevated Risk of Suicidal Behavior, Study Suggests

People with disabilities appear to be significantly more likely to think about, plan, and/or attempt suicide than people without disabilities, according to areport in theAmerican Journal of Preventive Medicine. Individuals with multiple disabilities were found to be at a particularly heightened risk of suicidal behavior.The findings highlight the need to consider functional disability when implementing suicide prevention strategies, “particularly the presence of complex activity limitations or multiple disabilities,” wrote Nicole M. Marlow, Ph.D., M.S.P.H., of the University of Florida and colleagues.Marlow and colleagues analyzed data collected as part of the National Survey on Drug Use and Health between 2015 and 2019. The final sample included 198,640 U.S. adults who had answered survey questions regarding the presence or absence of any suicidal thoughts, plans, and attempts during the 12 months prior to the survey. These respondents also answered six questions about the presence or absence of functional disabilities.The researchers categorized the respondents into seven groups based on their reported functional disability type; these groups included those with no functional disability, hearing limitation only, vision limitation only, cognitive limitation only, mobility limitation only, complex activity limitation only, and ≥2 limitations. The researchers also categorized respondents into six groups based on the number of disabilities they reported (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, or...
Source: Psychiatr News - Category: Psychiatry Tags: American Journal of Preventive Medicine cognition disabilities emotional problems hearing mobility issues National Survey on Drug Use and Health plan suicidal ideation suicide suicide attempt vision Source Type: research