Are Suicide-Specific Interventions Required to Reduce Suicidal Ideation? An Empirical Examination in a Clinical Sample of Eating-Disorder Participants

Abstract

In this research, we examined whether non-suicide-specific treatments effectively reduced suicidal ideation (SI) among a clinical sample of eating-disorder (ED) patients (N = 3,447, of whom 50.9% presented with SI). All participants met criteria for a current ED diagnoses based on the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders and were administered a combination of evidence-based treatments in inpatient, residential, partial hospitalization, and intensive outpatient ED treatment facilities. Mediation analyses tested whether SI at discharge decreased specifically through standardized residual change scores in ED symptoms. Both SI and ED symptoms decreased over the course of treatment without clinically meaningful differences by ED diagnosis. ED symptom improvement partially mediated the relationship between SI at admission and discharge, suggesting that treating ED symptoms with evidence-based treatments can be an effective way to reduce SI, at least partially, for many patients. These findings demonstrate the importance of facilitating evidence-based-treatment referrals for specific disorders as a component of broad-based suicide outreach and prevention strategies.