Citation

McLafferty M, Armour C, O'Neill S, Murphy S, Ferry F, Bunting B. J. Affect. Disord. 2016; 200: 97-102.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2016, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.jad.2016.04.031

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Over 30 years of conflict in Northern Ireland (NI) has impacted on the population's mental health. However, childhood adversities may add to the psychological impact of conflict. The aims of the study were to assess co-occurrence across childhood adversities, conflict related traumas, and psychological health, then explore demographic variations between identified classes, and examine the impact of class membership on suicidal ideation and behaviour.

METHOD: Data was obtained from the Northern Ireland Study of Health and Stress, a representative epidemiological study which used the CIDI to assess psychopathology and related risk factors in the NI population (N=4340, part 2 n=1986; response rate 64%).

RESULTS: Latent Class Analysis uncovered 4 discrete profiles; a conflict class (n=191; 9.6%), a multi-risk class endorsing elevated levels of childhood adversities, conflict related traumas and psychopathology (n=85; 4.3%), a psychopathology class (n=290; 14.6%), and a low risk class (n=1420; 71.5%). Multinomial logistic regression analysis revealed that individuals who grew up during the worst years of the Troubles were more likely to have experienced multiple traumas and psychopathology. Individuals in the multi-risk class were more than fifteen times more likely to endorse suicidal ideation and behaviour. LIMITATIONS: The main limitations are that the study may not be fully representative of the NI population due to the exclusion criteria applied and also the possible misclassification of conflict related events.

CONCLUSIONS: The findings indicate that treatment providers should be cognisant that those with wide ranging adversity profiles are those also likely to be reporting psychological distress and suicidality.

Keywords: Suicide misclassification

Language: en

Keywords

Adult; Humans; Female; Male; Middle Aged; Risk Factors; Socioeconomic Factors; Young Adult; Suicidal Ideation; Social Class; Suicide/*psychology; *Life Change Events; *Psychopathology; Mental Disorders/epidemiology/*etiology; Northern Ireland/epidemiology