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Hallucinations as a risk marker for suicidal behaviour in individuals with a history of sexual assault: a general population study with instant replication

Yates, Kathryn and Lång, Ulla and Peters, Evyn M. and Wigman, Johanna T. W. and Boyda, David and McNicholas, Fiona and Cannon, Mary and Alderson-Day, Ben and Bloomfield, Michael and Ramsay, Hugh and Kelleher, Ian (2022) 'Hallucinations as a risk marker for suicidal behaviour in individuals with a history of sexual assault: a general population study with instant replication.', Psychological Medicine .

Abstract

Background Research has shown a strong relationship between hallucinations and suicidal behaviour in general population samples. Whether hallucinations also index suicidal behaviour risk in groups at elevated risk of suicidal behaviour, namely in individuals with a sexual assault history, remains to be seen. Aims We assessed whether hallucinations were markers of risk for suicidal behaviour among individuals with a sexual assault history. Methods Using the cross-sectional 2007 (N = 7403) and 2014 (N = 7546) Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Surveys, we assessed for an interaction between sexual assault and hallucinations in terms of the odds of suicide attempt, as well as directly comparing the prevalence of suicide attempt in individuals with a sexual assault history with v. without hallucinations. Results Individuals with a sexual assault history had increased odds of hallucinations and suicide attempt compared to individuals without a sexual assault history in both samples. There was a significant interaction between sexual assault and hallucinations in terms of the odds of suicide attempt. In total, 14–19% of individuals with a sexual assault history who did not report hallucinations had one or more suicide attempt. This increased to 33–52% of individuals with a sexual assault history who did report hallucinations (2007, aOR = 2.85, 1.71–4.75; 2014, aOR = 4.52, 2.78–7.35). Conclusions Hallucinations are a risk marker for suicide attempt even among individuals with an elevated risk of suicidal behaviour, specifically individuals with a sexual assault history. This finding highlights the clinical significance of hallucinations with regard to suicidal behaviour risk, even among high-risk populations.

Item Type:Article
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Available under License - Creative Commons Attribution 4.0.
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Status:Peer-reviewed
Publisher Web site:https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291722001532
Publisher statement:This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited.
Date accepted:09 May 2022
Date deposited:18 July 2022
Date of first online publication:14 June 2022
Date first made open access:18 July 2022

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