(PS13-34) Suicidal Ideation and Its Relationship to Reattempts of Suicide in Gay Men with Borderline Personality Disorder: A Dynamical Systems Approach

Recent research on suicide ideattion has turned its attention to the dynamic and temporal unfolding of suicide ideation and how it impacts future suicide attempts. 

Indeed, recent models of suicidal ideation suggest that SI  unfolds dynamically, especially among individuals who have made multiple suicide attempts. However, less research in this area has been done with  sexual minorities, and those with personality disorders.  The focus of this study was to determine if patterns in suicide ideation, assessed at each psychotherapy appointment, could distinguish patients who made a suicide attempt within one year beginning psychotherapy from those who did not. Similar to some recent studies in the literature, a dynamic systems approach was employed  to examine  change patterns in suicide ideation over the course of DBT for borderline personality disorder (18  sessions total) among 33 gay male patients, all of whom had at least one prior suicide attempt. Severity of suicide ideation was not associated with suicide attempts during follow-up, but within person patterns were. Among those who made a second attempt, suicide ideation demonstrated greater within-person variability across psychotherapy. Results match previous research results which  suggest within-person processes in suicide ideation may be used to identify vulnerability to recurrent suicide attempts among first-time attempters receiving psychotherapy. Nonlinear dynamic models  for suicide risk assessment and treatment  in clinical settings.