Deconstructing resilience in patients at high risk for suicidal behavior

Resilience represents coping abilities to overcome exposure to psychopathological risk. In the context of risk factors for suicidal behavior, it is unknown if this attribute is deficient in suicide attempters, how it relates to other measures of risk, and where it may overlap with other risk factors associated with suicidal behavior.

The present study examined the performance on the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC) in three groups of individuals with familial risk for both mood disorder and suicidal behavior, as well as a healthy comparison group. Other risk factors for suicidal behavior, such as depression severity, hopelessness, and lifetime impulsiveness were examined as well to determine if these mediated group differences in CD-RISC scores.

CD-RISC scores differed between groups, with lowest scores in the past attempter group. However, CD-RISC scores were strongly correlated with other common risk factors for suicide attempt, including hopelessness, subjective depression, and reasons for living, which together explained 68 % of the CD-RISC variance. Group differences in CD-RISC scores were eliminated when the model included these covariates.

Sample sizes were modest, and depression severity was low overall and significantly higher in the past suicide attempter group.

The CD-RISC has demonstrated utility for predicting risk for depression, but appears to overlap with other known risk factors for suicidal behavior, especially hopelessness and subjective depression. Though it encapsulates variance from multiple risk factors in a single scale, it may not provide additional predictive power above and beyond these other risk factors for suicidal behavior.