Suicidality in Subjects With Anxiety or Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders: Recent Advances

• Published in: Current psychiatry reports 2018-04, Vol.20 (4), p.26-26, Article 26
• Main Authors: De La Vega, Diego, Giner, Lucas, Courtet, Philippe
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Anxiety Disorders (A Pelissolo); Anxiety Disorders - complications; Anxiety Disorders - epidemiology; Body Dysmorphic Disorders - complications; Comorbidity; Generalized anxiety disorder; Human health and pathology; Humans; Life Sciences; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Neuroses; Obsessive compulsive disorder; Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder - complications; Panic attacks; Panic Disorder - complications; Post traumatic stress disorder; Prevalence; Psychiatrics and mental health; Psychiatry; Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic - complications; Suicidal Ideation; Suicide - psychology; Suicide, Attempted - psychology; Suicides & suicide attempts; Topical Collection on Anxiety Disorders
• ISSN: 1523-3812; 1535-1645
• DOI: 10.1007/s11920-018-0885-z

Purpose of Review Historically, anxiety disorders have not been considered as important determinants of suicide, but in the last years, many works have challenged this assumption. Here, we will review the available evidence on the relationship between suicide and anxiety disorders (e.g., obsessive-compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, and body dysmorphic disorder), with special emphasis on findings published in the last years. Recent Findings Overall, anxiety disorders increase the risk of suicide. Specifically, 16% of patients with social anxiety disorder reported suicidal ideation in the previous month, and 18% of them had a history of suicide attempts. Similarly, in patients with panic disorder, suicidal ideation prevalence ranged between 17 and 32%, and 33% of them had a history of suicide attempts. Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) was the most frequent anxiety disorder in completed suicides (present in 3% of people who committed suicide) and also subthreshold GAD was clearly linked to suicide ideation. Post-traumatic stress disorder was positively associated with suicidal ideation, and in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder, suicide ideation rates ranged from 10 to 53% and suicide attempts from 1 to 46%. Body dysmorphic disorders presented a suicide ideation prevalence of about 80%. Summary Suicide risk is increased in subjects with anxiety disorder. This risk is higher in the presence of comorbidities, but it is not clear whether it is independent from such comorbidities in some disorders.