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Psychotic Like Experiences are Associated with Suicide Ideation and Behavior in 9 to 10 Year Old Children in the United States

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Abstract

Those experiencing psychotic like experiences (PLEs) are at higher risk for suicide ideation and behavior. However, it is unclear if PLEs are related to suicide ideation and behavior in children, and whether other factors such as impulsivity or emotion dysregulation might moderate the relationship. We hypothesize that PLEs are associated with suicide ideation and behavior, with impulsivity and emotion dysregulation moderating this relationship, in middle childhood. History of PLEs, suicide ideation and behavior, depression, emotion dysregulation, and impulsivity were assessed for 10,624 children aged 9 to 10.9 years (47.8% female, 34.4% minority race, 20.0% Hispanic) as part of the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development℠ study. Hypotheses about associations between variables were assessed using hierarchical linear modeling. PLEs were associated with suicide ideation and suicide behavior even when controlling for depression severity. Emotion dysregulation and impulsivity were also associated with suicide ideation and moderated the relationship between PLEs and suicide ideation. Variation in suicide ideation due to impulsivity and emotion dysregulation appears to be strongest when people are experiencing low levels to no PLEs. Only impulsivity and PLEs were associated with suicide behavior. Depression was associated with suicide ideation, but not suicide behavior. PLEs may be an important risk factor for suicide ideation and behavior in 9 to 10-year-old children, comparable to adult and adolescent populations. When considering prevention of suicidality, these data suggest that considering the relations between PLEs, impulsivity and emotion dysregulation may be important.

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Acknowledgments

Data used in the preparation of this article were obtained from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study (https://abcdstudy.org), held in the NIMH Data Archive (NDA). This is a multisite, longitudinal study designed to recruit more than 11,500 children age 9-10 and follow them over 10 years into early adulthood. The ABCD Study is supported by the National Institutes of Health and additional federal partners under award numbers U01DA041022, U01DA041025, U01DA041028, U01DA041048, U01DA041089, U01DA041093, U01DA041106, U01DA041117, U01DA041120, U01DA041134, U01DA041148, U01DA041156, U01DA041174, U24DA041123, and U24DA041147. A full list of supporters is available at https://abcdstudy.org/nih-collaborators. A listing of participating sites and study investigators can be found at https://abcdstudy.org/principal-investigators.html. ABCD consortium investigators designed and implemented the study and/or provided data but did not necessarily participate in analysis or writing of this report. This manuscript reflects the views of the authors and may not reflect the opinions or views of the NIH or ABCD consortium investigators. The ABCD data repository grows and changes over time. The data used in this report came from https://doi.org/10.15154/1460410.

Funding

This work was supported by National Institute on Drug Abuse grant U01 DA041120 (DMB), National Institute of Health grants MH014677 (NRK).

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  1. Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, University of California-Davis, 4701 X St, Sacramento, CA, 95817, USA

    Rebecca E. Grattan, Adrienne M. Maguire, Burt Hatch & Tara A. Niendam

  2. Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA

    Nicole R. Karcher & Deanna M. Barch

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Correspondence to Tara A. Niendam.

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T. Niendam is a co-founder and shareholder in Safari Health, Inc. The other authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

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Institutional review board approval was obtained for each Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study site. Secondary approval for this analysis was given by the University of California institutional review board (1462784–1).

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Grattan, R.E., Karcher, N.R., Maguire, A.M. et al. Psychotic Like Experiences are Associated with Suicide Ideation and Behavior in 9 to 10 Year Old Children in the United States. Res Child Adolesc Psychopathol 49, 255–265 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-020-00721-9

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