Childhood traumas and suicide probability in obsessive-compulsive disorder patients with and without suicide attempts

Abstract

Objective: The aim of this research is to determine the differences in childhood traumas and the probability of suicide in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) patients with and without suicide attempts. Method: Sixty-five OCD patients without suicide attempt history and 39 OCD patients with a history of suicide attempts were included in the study. To measure the clinical variables The Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ), Suicide Probability Scale, Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale and Beck Depression Inventory were applied. Results: We found that the OCD group with suicide attempts was significantly higher than the OCD group without a suicide attempt due to emotional neglect, physical neglect, sexual abuse, and CTQ total scores. Aggression and sexual obsessions were higher in the OCD group who has attempted suicide. Obsessive-compulsive symptoms, depression and insight scores of OCD patients with suicide attempts were worse than OCD patients without suicide attempts. Also, correlations were observed between childhood traumas and suicidal probability scores. Conclusion: This study showed that childhood traumas may be a contributing factor to suicide probability and attempt in patients with OCD. Moreover, this study reveals that the current probability of suicide is a higher risk in OCD patients who had previously attempted suicide in the past.