Multi-modal risk factors differentiate suicide attempters from ideators in military veterans with major depressive disorder.

BACKGROUND

The suicide rate for United States military veterans is 1.5× higher than that of non-veterans. To meaningfully advance suicide prevention efforts, research is needed to delineate factors that differentiate veterans with suicide attempt/s, particularly in high-risk groups, e.g., major depressive disorder (MDD), from those with suicidal ideation (no history of attempt/s). The current study aimed to identify clinical, neurocognitive, and neuroimaging variables that differentiate suicide-severity groups in veterans with MDD.

METHODS

Sixty-eight veterans with a DSM-5 diagnosis of MDD, including those with no ideation or suicide attempt (N = 21; MDD-SI/SA), ideation-only (N = 17; MDD + SI), and one-or-more suicide attempts (N = 30; MDD + SA; aborted, interrupted, actual attempts), participated in this study. Participants underwent a structured diagnostic interview, neurocognitive assessment, and 3 T-structural/diffusion tensor magnetic-resonance-imaging (MRI). Multinomial logistic regression models were conducted to identify variables that differentiated groups with respect to the severity of suicidal behavior.

RESULTS

Relative to veterans with MDD-SI/SA, those with MDD + SA had significantly higher left cingulum fractional anisotropy, decreased attentional control on emotional-Stroop, and faster response time with intact accuracy on Go/No-Go. Relative to MDD + SI, MDD + SA had higher left cingulum fractional anisotropy and faster response time with intact accuracy on Go/No-Go.

LIMITATIONS: Findings are based on retrospective, cross-sectional data and cannot identify causal relationships. Also, a healthy control group was not included given the study's focus on differentiating suicide profiles in MDD.

CONCLUSIONS

This study suggests that MRI and neurocognition differentiate veterans with MDD along the suicide-risk spectrum and could inform suicide-risk stratification and prevention efforts in veterans and other vulnerable populations.