Suicidal ideation in remitted major depressive disorder predicts recurrence

Each year almost 800.000 people die from suicide, of which up to 87% are affected by major depressive disorder (MDD). Despite the strong association between suicidality and MDD, it remains unknown if suicidal symptoms during remission put remitted recurrent MDD patients (rrMDD) at risk for recurrence.

At baseline we compared sociodemographic characteristics and suicidal symptoms in un-medicated rrMDD participants to matched never-depressed controls. We used the HDRS₁₇ and IDS-SR₃₀ to assess suicidal symptoms and depressive symptomatology. Next, we studied the longitudinal association between baseline suicidal symptoms and time to recurrence(s) in rrMDD during a 2.5-year follow-up period using cox regression analyses. Further, we studied with longitudinal data whether suicidal symptoms and depressive symptomatology were cross-sectionally associated using mixed model analysis.

At baseline, rrMDD participants (N = 73) had higher self-reported suicidal symptoms than matched never-depressed controls (N = 45) (χ² = 12.09 p < .002). Self-reported suicidal symptoms were almost four times higher (27.9% versus 6.9%) compared to clinician-rated suicidal symptoms in rrMDD at baseline. Self-reported baseline suicidal symptoms, but not clinician-rated symptoms, predicted earlier MDD-recurrence during follow-up, independent of other residual depressive symptoms (χ² = 7.26, p < .026). Higher suicidal symptoms were longitudinally related to higher depressive symptoms (HDRS₁₇; F = 49.87, p < .001), IDS-SR₃₀; (F = 22.36, p < .001).

This study showed that self-reported - but not clinician-rated - suicidal symptoms persist during remission in rrMDD and predict recurrence, independent from residual symptoms. We recommend to monitor both suicidal and depressive symptomatology during remission in rrMDD, preferably also including self-reported questionnaires apart from clinician-rated. It would be beneficial for future research to assess suicidality using questionnaires primarily designed for measuring suicidal ideation.