Suicidal ideation in a random community sample:.
Attributable risk due to depression and psychosocial .
The objective of this article was to determine the risk for suicidal ideation from depression and traumatic events in a random population. The research data was taken in South Australia. This study was part of a broader research of the mental health status of a representative sample population. It measures the general mental health, and calculated the suicidal ideation risk. It then compared the results of people with depression and traumatic events to people who didn't have depression (according to GHQ data) or haven't experienced any traumatic events.
2. The Method.
The subjects were briefly interviewed with a 28 question survey that had these 4 questions to determine suicidal tendencies: "Have you recently felt that life is not worth living?" "Have you recently found yourself wishing you were dead and away from it all?" "Have you recently had thoughts of the possibility that you might do away with yourself?" and "Have you recently found the idea of taking your own life kept coming into your mind?" The method of scoring was determined by set responses to the questions. These were: "not at all" "no more than usual" "definitely not" "I don't think so" "rather more than usual" "much more than usual" "has crossed my mind" and "definitely has". The recorded data included gender, age, level of income, work status, use of alcohol and smoking status. Psychosocial events that occurred in the past 12 months included unplanned loss of a job, a new job, family or domestic violence, death of someone close, discrimination by others, moving home, home being robbed or burgled, relationship breakdown and serious injury or illness. Specific traumatic events that occurred in an individual's life included the experience of direct combat in war, being in a life-threatening accident, being involved in a flood, fire or other natural disaster, witnessing someone being badly injured or killed, being raped, being sexually molested, being seriously physically attacked or assaulted, being threatened with a weapon, held captive or kidnapped, and being tortured or the victim of terrorists.
