van Ballegooijen, et al. (2022).
BJPsych Open, 8(4), e105.
Abstract
Background
Psychological models of suicidal experiences are largely based on cross-sectional or long-term prospective data with follow-up intervals typically greater than 1 year. Recent time-series analyses suggest that these models may not account for fluctuations in suicidal thinking that occur within a period of hours and/or days.
Aims
We explored whether previously posited causal relationships between defeat, entrapment and suicidal ideation accounted for temporal associations between these experiences at small time intervals from 3 to 12 h.
Method
Participants (N = 51) completed an ecological momentary assessment (EMA) study, comprising repeated assessments at semi-random time points up to six times per day for 1 week, resulting in 1852 completed questionnaires. Multilevel vector autoregression was used to calculate temporal associations between variables at different time intervals (i.e. 3 to 12 h between measurements).
Results
The results showed that entrapment severity was temporally associated with current and later suicidal ideation, consistently over these time intervals. Furthermore, entrapment had two-way temporal associations with defeat and suicidal ideation at time intervals of approximately 3 h. The residual and contemporaneous network revealed significant associations between all variables, of which the association between entrapment and defeat was the strongest.
Conclusions
Although entrapment is key in the pathways leading to suicidal ideation over time periods of months, our results suggest that entrapment may also account for the emergence of suicidal thoughts across time periods spanning a few hours.
Here are some thoughts.
This study examined the short-term temporal relationships between feelings of defeat, entrapment, and suicidal ideation using ecological momentary assessment (EMA). The findings revealed that entrapment was consistently associated with both current and subsequent suicidal ideation over intervals ranging from 3 to 12 hours.
Entrapment refers to a psychological state where an individual feels trapped in an adverse situation that they cannot escape from, despite wanting to. It involves the perception of being stuck in life circumstances—internally (e.g., persistent thoughts, emotions, or internal conflicts) or externally (e.g., relationships, work, social situations)—with no viable way out.
Additionally, entrapment and defeat exhibited bidirectional relationships with suicidal ideation at approximately 3-hour intervals. These results suggest that entrapment may serve as a proximal indicator for the emergence of suicidal thoughts within hours. For practicing psychologists, this underscores the importance of closely monitoring clients' feelings of entrapment, as addressing these perceptions promptly could be crucial in preventing the rapid onset of suicidal ideation.
