Non-suicidal Self-injury Differentiates Suicide Ideators and Attempters and Predicts Future Suicide Attempts in Patients with Eating Disorders.

OBJECTIVE: We aimed first to identificate psychopathological variables differentiating between suicide ideators, suicide attempters and patients without suicide ideation or attempts, and second to identificate better predictors of suicide attempts longitudinally. METHOD: We compared suicide ideation, hopelessness, borderline symptoms, frequency, types, number of different non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) methods, intrapersonal and interpersonal functionality of NSSI in a sample of 238 patients with Eating Disorders (1) with no history of suicide ideation or suicide attempts (n = 150); (2) with recent suicide ideation (n = 65); and (3) with suicide attempts in the previous year (n = 23). In addition, we analyzed the predictive power of the mentioned variables over the number of suicide attempts 7 months after the first assessment. RESULTS: The group of suicide attempters showed a major number of different methods of NSSI, higher frequency of NSSI, cutting, and more NSSI intra and interpersonal functions than the group of ideators. Unlike in previous studies, hopelessness did not differentiate between patients with ideation and suicide attempts. In addition, the best predictor of suicide attempts 7 months later was frequency of NSSI at T1 (N = 123). CONCLUSIONS: Cutting, frequency and different methods of NSSI, intra and interpersonal functions were risk factors that differentiated ideators from attempters, being frequency of NSSI the best predictor of suicide attempts longitudinally. Thus, patients with ED with NSSI should be the focus of preventive interventions for suicidal behavior.

Psychometric properties of the Purpose-In-Life Test and age-related differences among women diagnosed with eating disorders.

The aim of this study was to analyze the psychometric properties of the Purpose-In-Life Test (PIL), as well as the age-related differences in meaning in life in women diagnosed with eating disorders. Participants were 250 Spanish women diagnosed with eating disorders who ranged from 12 to 60 years old. Confirmatory Factor Analysis, descriptive analyses, estimation of the internal consistency of the PIL, correlations between the PIL and the Beck Hopelessness Scale (BHS), Overweight Preoccupation Scale (OPS), and Body Investment Scale (BIS), and age differences were calculated. A 19-item model that showed a good fit and internal consistency, a negative correlation between the PIL and both the BHS and OPS, and a positive correlation with the BIS, as well as significant differences between the adolescents and the mature adults, were found. It would be advisable to increase the inclusion of meaning in life in psychotherapeutic interventions with women diagnosed with eating disorders.