[The associations between God representations and suicidality among Christian patients with a major depressive...

Depression strongly increases the risk of suicide. Religion is described as a protective factor against suicide. Considering the emotional blunting associated with depression, it is important to investigate the affective dimension of religion. This dimension is conveyed in God representations.
AIM: To describe what types of God representation occur among Christian patients with major depressive disorder and to determine whether there is a relationship between types of God representation and suicide.
METHOD: Clinical and outpatients with a major depressive disorder (n=155) completed the Questionnaire God Representations and the Paykel Suicide Items. A k-means cluster analysis is applied to examine which types of God representations occur among depressed patients. Whether there is a relationship between the different God representations and suicide is examined by applying a linear regression analysis.
RESULTS: Depressed patients uphold two types of God representation: a positive type (n=82) with positive feelings towards God and where God was experienced as supportive, and a negative type (n=73) with anger and anxiety towards God and where God was experienced as passive. Patients with a negative type of God representation scored significantly higher on suicidality. The severity of depression was the main predictor of suicidality, but God representations were also related with a 4% increase in the explained variance.
CONCLUSION: In Christian patients with major depressive disorder a negative and a positive God representation emerged. Patients with a negative God representation mainly seem to feel abandoned by God. The suicidality is significantly increased in patients with a negative God representation, however, the increase in the proportion of the explained variance is small.