Suicidal thoughts/acts and clinical correlates in patients with depressive disorders in Asians: results from the REAP-AD study

Abstract

Objective: Using data from the Research on Asian Psychotropic Prescription Patterns for Antidepressants (REAP-AD) study, we aimed to present the rates and clinical correlates of suicidal thoughts/acts in patients recruited from a total of 40 centres in 10 Asian countries/areas: China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, and Thailand.

Methods: Data from 1122 patients with depressive disorders in the REAP-AD study were used. The ICD-10 was employed to diagnose depressive episodes and recurrent depressive disorder. The presence or absence of suicidal thoughts/acts and profile of other depressive symptoms was established using the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence guidelines for depression. Country/area differences in rates of suicidal thoughts/acts were evaluated with the chi(2) test. In addition, depressive symptom profiles, other clinical characteristics, and patterns of psychotropic drug prescription in depressed patients with and without suicidal thoughts/acts were compared using analysis of covariance for continuous variables and logistic regression analysis for discrete variables to adjust the effects of covariates.

Results: The rates of suicidal thoughts/acts in 10 countries/areas varied from 12.8% in Japan to 36.3% in China. Patients with suicidal thoughts/acts presented more persistent sadness (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] = 2.64, p˂0.001), loss of interest (aOR = 2.33, p˂0.001), fatigue (aOR = 1.58, p˂0.001), insomnia (aOR = 1.74, p˂0.001), poor concentration (aOR = 1.88, p˂0.001), low self-confidence (aOR = 1.78, p˂0.001), poor appetite (aOR = 2.27, p˂0.001), guilt/self-blame (aOR = 3.03, p˂0.001), and use of mood stabilisers (aOR = 1.79, p˂0.001) than those without suicidal thoughts/acts.

Conclusion: Suicidal thoughts/acts can indicate greater severity of depression, and are associated with a poorer response to antidepressants and increased burden of illness. Hence, suicidal thoughts/acts can provide a clinical index reflecting the clinical status of depressive disorders in Asians.