Citation

Velkoff EA, Forrest LN, Dodd DR, Smith AR. Suicide Life Threat. Behav. 2015; 46(3): 313-322.

Affiliation

Department of Psychology, Miami University, Oxford, OH, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, American Association of Suicidology, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/sltb.12194

PMID

26436594

Abstract

OBJECTIVE measures of suicide risk can convey life-saving information to clinicians, but few such measures exist. This study examined an objective measure of fearlessness about death (FAD), testing whether FAD relates to self-reported and physiological aversion to death. Females (n = 87) reported FAD and disgust sensitivity, and facial electromyography was used to measure physiological facial responses consistent with disgust while viewing death-related images. FAD predicted attenuated expression of physiological death aversion, even when controlling for self-reported death-related disgust sensitivity. Diminished physiological aversion to death-related stimuli holds promise as an objective measure of FAD and suicide risk.

Language: en