Associations of Suicidal Thoughts and Behaviors with Psychological and Physiological Reactivity to a Hyperventilation Task Among Trauma-Exposed Emerging Adults.

Abstract

Objective: Suicidality is a critical public health concern, especially among emerging adults who have experienced trauma. However, limitations remain in understanding the associations of suicidal risk and stress-responding. The current study experimentally evaluated the extent to which suicidal thoughts and behaviors (lifetime ideation/attempts, past-year suicidal ideation, threat of suicide attempt, likelihood of suicide in the future) were associated with self-reported psychological and physiological reactivity to a trauma-relevant stress induction task via breathing tasks.

Method: The sample comprised 94 trauma-exposed undergraduate students (M_age = 20.30; 61.7% women) who completed a laboratory-based, within-subjects study. Participants completed both a voluntary hyperventilation challenge and a normal breathing control task and reported psychological and physiological reactivity before and after each trauma-relevant stress induction task.

Results: An overall path model indicated past-year suicidal ideation was significantly positively associated with psychological reactivity (β = .51); no other associations were significant.

Conclusions: Identifying patterns between stress-responding and suicidal thoughts and behaviors may allow researchers and clinicians to develop programs to reduce the risk of suicide in young adults in the future, especially among those who are trauma-exposed.