The relationship between Mood Disorder, Personality Disorder and Suicidality in Adolescence: Does personality disorder play a significant role in predicting suicidal behavior?

Introduction: Current research points to the importance of diagnosing personality pathology emerging patterns in adolescence for understanding suicidal risk. Studies have mainly focused on the role of BPD and only marginally investigated the interaction of personality disorder (PD) as overall diagnosis and individual PDs and major depression (MDD). In this paper, the independent and cumulative effects of MDD and DSM-IV PDs on suicidal risk are investigated in a longitudinal study. Methods: A sample of 118 adolescents (mean age = 15.48 ± 1.14) referred for assessment and treatment on account of suicidal ideation or behavior were administered the CSSRS, SCID II, Kiddie-SADS; after six months the CSSRS was applied again to all patients. In order to test the significance of the associations and predictions between categorical and dimensional PD, BPD, NPD, Major Depression, suicide attempts, number of suicide attempts and potential lethality of suicide attempt, non-parametric bivariate correlations, logistic regression models and mixed-effects Poisson regression were performed PD. Results: BPD was confirmed to be a significant risk factor for suicide. Personality disorders assessed at a categorical and dimensional level and Unipolar depression exert an influence on suicidal behaviors and their lethality both as independent and cumulative risk factors. Limitations: While we incorporated dimensional thinking into our approach to assessing psychopathology, our study still relied on traditional defined. Future studies should include AMPD-defined personality pathology in adolescence to truly represent dimensional thinking. Conclusion: These results point to the importance of early identification of emerging patterns of personality disorders in adolescence.