Risks for suicidality in major depressive disorder

This investigation developed a hierarchical multiple regression model to assess the potential risk factors for suicidality in youths 7 to 17 years old. Variables were assessed in three domains: self-perceptions, demography and diagnosis, and home/environment. The model controlled for major depressive disorder (MDD), which has confounded previous investigations, by evaluating potential risks in a diagnostically heterogenous sample, and then evaluating these risks in a subsample with MDD. Conduct problems and depressive thinking emerged as the most powerful predictors in both samples. Hopelessness, life stress, and maternal psychopathology predicted suicidality only in the total sample. Separation anxiety protected MDD youths. These results suggest that suicidal MDD youths may comprise a distinct subgroup of depressed youths.