Symptoms of Prolonged Grief Disorder and Risk of Suicide: is There Anything in Common? A Network Analysis Approach

Abstract

Suicide risk is highly prevalent among substance users, a population vulnerable to complications in bereavement. This study used network analysis to examine relationships between Prolonged Grief Disorder (PGD) symptoms and suicide risk among bereaved individuals in addiction treatment. Participants were 196 bereaved substance users. The Risk of Suicide Scale and the Spanish version of the Inventory of Complicated Grief were applied. Gaussian Graphical Models with LASSO regularization explored associations between symptoms, assessing centrality, expected influence, and bridge centrality. Network robustness was tested via bootstrapping using R and SPSS. In that sense, the network of PGD symptoms and suicide risk showed good stability. “Disbelief over what happened,” “feeling life is empty without the deceased,” “bitterness over the death,” and “thoughts of suicide” had the highest strength indicators. In conclusion, PGD symptoms play a crucial role in suicide risk among substance users, underscoring the need for targeted, personalized interventions.

Keywords

risk of suicide prolonged grief disorder network analysis substance use disorder

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