Suicidal ideation, depression, and insomnia in parent survivors of suicide: Based on Korean psychological autopsy of adolescent suicides

Background: This study aims to evaluate suicidal ideation, depression, and insomnia among parent survivors of adolescents who died by suicide and their relevant risk factors using psychological autopsy results from South Korea. Methods: The participants were 42 parent survivors (10 fathers and 32 mothers) of 35 adolescents who died by suicide. We used the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 and the Korean version of the Insomnia Severity Index to evaluate the mental health of the bereaved parents. We used the Korean Psychological Autopsy Checklist for Adolescents, the Korean Beck Depression Inventory, the Korean Version of the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale-II, and the Kiddie-Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia-Present and Lifetime-Korean versions to evaluate the mental health of deceased adolescents before their deaths. Results: The results showed that many parent survivors of suicide had developed clinically significant suicidal ideation, depression, and insomnia (75.6%, 73.2%, and 42.9%, respectively). Furthermore, the higher the incidence of traumatic events experienced by the deceased adolescents, the higher the severity of depression and insomnia experienced by surviving parents. Conclusion: We should pay attention that parent survivors of suicide can suffer mental disorders after their offspring's death. In future studies, long-term follow-up studies with larger samples need to generalize our findings and clarify the causal relationship.