Evidence for Specific Associations Between Depressive Symptoms, Psychotic Experiences, and Suicidal Ideation in Chilean Adolescents From the General Population

Daniel Núñez,Johanna T W Wigman,Susana Campos,Pía Monjes

doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2020.552343

Daniel Núñez, Johanna T W Wigman + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2020.552343

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Abstract

Associations between psychotic experiences and suicidal ideation are not yet fully understood, and the potential role of depressive symptoms in this relationship remains unclear. The current study examined relationships between depressive symptoms (DS), psychotic experiences (PE) and suicidal ideation (SI) using two complementary approaches on cross-sectional data from a community sample of adolescents aged 13–19 years (N = 1,591). First, we investigated the association between the three domains using mediation analysis, showing that depressive symptoms partly mediate the relationship between psychotic experiences and suicidal ideation. Second, we looked at associations between the three domains at item level using network analysis. Specific associations between symptoms of the three domains were found, indicating depressive symptoms of sadness, avolition, pessimism, and self-criticalness/worthlessness as the most central symptoms in the network. Suicidal ideation was associated with the depressive symptoms pessimism and worthlessness, to social anxiety, and to perceptual anomalies. Our results show that the mediating effect of depressive symptoms between psychotic experiences and suicidal ideation may be due to associations between specific aspects of SI, depressive symptoms and psychotic experiences. These findings can contribute to the planning of health services and programs aimed at the timely detection of psychopathology and suicidal risk in young people.

Highlights

Youth mental health is a global challenge, with onset of mental illness peaking in adolescence [1]
We analyzed the associations between psychotic experiences (PE), depressive symptoms (DS) and suicidal ideation (SI) in a large general population sample of adolescents using two complementary approaches: first, we investigated the associations between the three domains in general and second, at item level
Confirming previous findings of Sullivan et al [62], our results suggest that depressive symptoms play an important mediating role in the relationship between SI and PE

Summary

INTRODUCTION

Youth mental health is a global challenge, with onset of mental illness peaking in adolescence [1]. Adolescents are at increased risk for both psychotic experiences (PE) [2] and suicidal ideation (SI) [3] which are prevalent in the general [4] and clinical populations [5]. Gill et al [5] found that the associations between negative symptoms and SI persisted when controlled for depressive symptoms in a high-risk sample of adolescents and young-adults, and Nishida et al [33] observed that the association between PE and suicidal feelings and behaviors remains significant when controlled for anxiety and DS and use of substances in a general sample of adolescents. In line with previous findings [45, 46] we hypothesized that DS would take up a central role in the overall symptoms network, and that some specific affective symptoms (i.e., low energy, hopelessness and self-depreciating feelings) would show higher centrality values (i.e., play a more central role in the symptom network)

Participants

Procedure

RESULTS

DISCUSSION

ETHICS STATEMENT