Suicidality profiles among Korean adults: Ideation recency, lifetime behavioral history, and current psychiatric...

Lifetime suicidal ideation encompasses different combinations of recent thoughts and behavioral history. We examined suicidality profiles and their psychiatric and psychosocial correlates in the 2021 National Mental Health Survey of Korea (N = 5511). Among 574 lifetime ideators, latent class analysis used five binary indicators: past-year ideation, current ideation, lifetime plan, lifetime attempt, and lifetime nonsuicidal self-injury. Class differences in psychiatric and psychosocial characteristics were examined using survey-design-based analyses, with classification-error correction for continuous outcomes. Three profiles were retained: remote ideation with limited behavioral history (78.0%), lifetime plan and attempt with low current ideation (15.3%), and current ideation with intermediate lifetime planning (6.7%; modal n = 32). BCH-corrected mean counts of positive 12-month diagnostic indicators were 0.20, 0.35, and 0.92 (omnibus P = 0.024); the current-ideation class exceeded the remote-ideation class (adjusted P = 0.039; d = 0.91). Resilience and loneliness also differed overall across profiles, whereas life satisfaction did not. These profiles suggest that ideation recency and lifetime behavioral history provide complementary clinical information among adults with lifetime suicidal ideation. Separate assessment of current suicidal thoughts and lifetime behavioral history may therefore improve clinical characterization.