A Study on Correlation between Anxiety Symptoms and Suicidal Ideation.
OBJECTIVE
In South Korea, the number of deaths from suicide has increased in the last two decades, and suicide has become both a social and political problem. In this study, after controlling the variables influencing suicidal ideation, it was expected that it would be determined if anxiety symptoms are independently related to suicidal ideation.


METHODS
Data were obtained from 327 psychiatric outpatients accomplished a self-reported questionnaire that included sociodemographic characteristics and clinical variables as well as self-rating scales for measuring the severity of one's anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation. Logistic-regression analyses were used to determine the correlation between anxiety symptoms and significant suicidal ideation, adjusting for covariates.


RESULTS
The patients with significant suicidal ideation were shown to be less educated, unemployed, never married, divorced, or separated by death, or living alone, and were shown to have a lower income, a drinking habit, a higher number of past suicide attempts, and more family members who committed suicide, than the patients without significant suicidal ideation. After adjusting the covariates influencing significant suicidal ideation, anxiety symptoms were associated with significant suicidal ideation. However, after adjusting for depressive symptoms, only the trait anxiety was associated with significant suicidal ideation.


CONCLUSIONS
These findings suggest that anxiety symptoms are an independent risk factor for suicidal ideation. Clinicians may thus use anxiety symptoms for the screening examination when evaluating suicidal ideation and risk, and will have to actively evaluate and treat the anxiety symptoms of patients with suicidal tendencies.
Department of Psychiatry, Ewha Womans University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
Hee-Yeon
HY
Choi
Soo-In
SI
Kim
Kyu Wol
KW
Yun
Young Chul
YC
Kim
Weon-Jeong
WJ
Lim
Eui-Jung
EJ
Kim
Jae-Hong
JH
Ryoo