Impulsivity, Hopelessness, and Neuropsychological Test Performances among Depressed Adolescent Suicide Attempters

Introduction: In this study, we aimed to evaluate the relationship between sociodemographic, clinical and neuropsychological variables and suicide attempts by comparing adolescents with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) with and without suicide attempt. Method: 30 adolescents with and without suicide attempt were included in this study. Sociodemographic and Clinical Data Form, Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School-Age Children-Present and Lifetime Version (K-SADS-PL), The Children Depression Inventory (CDI), Beck Hopelessness Scale (BHS), Barratt Impulsivity Scale (BIS) and neuropsychological tests (Go/NoGo test, Stroop test Wisconsin Card Sorting Test) was applied to participants. Results: Depressed adolescents with suicide attempt compared to adolescents without suicide attempt; motor and total impulsivity scores in BIS-11, commission errors in Go/NoGo test which measure motor inhibition, completion time and errors in Stroop 5 which measure interference inhibition and scores of perseveration in Winsconsin Card Sorting Test ( WCST) which measure cognitive inhibition were found to be higher. Family history of suicide attempt (OR:5.87), commission errors (OR:1.37), perseverative errors (OR:1.09) ve total impulsivity (OR:1.05) were remained in the logistic regression model. Conclusion: Results of this study suggested that family history of suicide attempt was the most important factor predicting suicide attempt in adolescents with depression. Other factors predicting suicide attempt were executive dysfunction and impulsivity.