Suicidal Ideation Among Persons With Psychiatric Disorders: A Cross-Sectional Study at Outpatient Clinics in Iraq

Mental illness is an important risk factor for suicidal ideation. However, little has been known about the burden and associated factors of suicidal ideation among persons with psychiatric disorders in Iraq. We aim to investigate the rate and the associated demographic and clinical factors of suicidal ideation among persons with mental illness in Iraq.

Data were collected from 388 persons with mental disorders from psychiatric outpatient clinics in Baghdad in 2023 for this cross-sectional study. The instrument contained socio-demographic and clinical variables, and the Columbia-Suicide Severity Rating Scale (C-SSRS). A descriptive analysis was conducted using the Chi-square test to determine the relationships in which a significance level of 0.05 was considered.

Among the 388 respondents, 67% were males, and about half of the patients were younger than 40 years old. Affective (49.8%) and psychotic disorders (17.5%) were the most common mental disorders. The prevalence of suicidal ideation was 37.1% in the last year. The majority of suicidal ideation fell into a low severity range on the C-SSRS, particularly for patients who had no prior history of suicidal behavior. Suicidal ideation was significantly associated with female gender, crowded accommodations experiencing recent psychological trauma, presence of a family history of mental disorder, and family history of suicidal behavior.

Suicidal ideation was present in more than one-third of persons with psychiatric disorders. Policy-level implications could be warranted during regular appointments of psychiatric patients to identify risky individuals in outpatient settings.