Attentional Bias and Prediction of Attempted Suicide in Clinical and Non-Clinical Population

Objectives: The aim of the present research is to analyze the predictability of suicide attempt, based on attentional bias in clinical and non-clinical population.   Materials and Methods: 120 participants (77 females and 43 males) have been intentionally selected in three diagnostic groups: clinical suicides, clinical non-suicides and non-clinical ones (40 individuals in each group). They participated in Suicide Stroop Test as well as Beck Scale of Suicide Ideation (BSS). Three attentional bias parameters, including reaction time and interference time, are computed and the data was analyzed using Multivariate Analysis of Variance and Discriminant Analysis. Results: The results obtained from multivariate analysis reveals that the variables of interference time did not have statistically a specific indication for the three groups of individuals in suicide stroop (p<0.568 and F=0.569), positive stroop (p<0.201 and F=1.626) and negative stroop (p<0.863 and F=0.147). However, in case of reaction time variables, there was a significant difference in the values obtained for all the three groups for suicide stroop (p<0.000 and F=12.759), positive stroop (p<0.000 and F=18.520), negative stroop (p<0.000 and F=10.995) and neutral stroop (p<0.000 and F=8.288). In addition, the results obtained from discriminant analysis show that the variables including suicide ideation (0.822), reaction time in positive stroop (0.571), suicide stroop (0.470), negative stroop (0.438) and neutral stroop (0.376) are, correspondingly, crucial in predicting the behavior of the clinical suicide attempt, clinical non-suicide attempt and non-clinical groups.   Conclusions: In present research, it was found that for suicide stroop, the clinical and non-clinical populations do not show a significant difference in terms of the interference effect; however, they differed in terms of reaction time. Therefore, it seems that using emotional stroop, attentional bias towards suicide-related topics does not depend on the clinical situations and other parameters such scoring methods should be considered. With this regard, there is still a need to conduct more extensive researches.