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Suicide and Self-Injury

(PS13-38) The Effects of Means Restriction on Virtual Reality Suicide

Sunday, November 17, 2024
9:00 AM – 10:00 AM EST
Location: Franklin Hall, Level 4, Marriott Downtown
Abstract Text: Means restriction interventions are often cited as a best practice for suicide intervention; however, our understanding of their effectiveness comes primarily from correlational and predictive studies, which preclude causal inferences about their direct effects. Further, little is known about what factors may influence the efficacy of means restriction. One possible factor is an individual’s anticipated consequences of suicide (i.e., anticipated avoidance of something unpleasant). To address this critical gap in knowledge, the present study used a validated virtual reality (VR) suicide paradigm to experimentally examine the causal effects of means restriction and the anticipated consequences of suicide on subsequent virtual suicidal behavior. We hypothesized that desirable anticipated consequences (e.g., being told that engaging in VR suicide would allow one to avoid a future stressor) would drive virtual suicidal behavior, but that this process could be disrupted by increasing the effort required to access the necessary means to engage in virtual suicide. We tested this prediction by randomizing 217 participants across four conditions. As predicted, the anticipated consequences manipulation caused a large increase in VR suicide rates. Also consistent with our hypotheses, increasing the effort required to engage in virtual suicidal behavior when the anticipated consequences of suicide were highly desirable produced significantly lower rates of virtual suicide. These findings serve as a first step toward establishing a causal link between means restriction and suicide and lend further empirical support to the hypothesis that the anticipated consequences of suicide may represent a primary cause of suicidal behavior.