A specific attentional bias in suicide attempters

Selective attention in patients after an attempted suicide was investigated to find out whether a specific attentional bias for suicide-related materials exists and to clarify the possible role of emotions in the bias. Thirty-one patients who had previously attempted to commit suicide and 31 control participants took part in a modified Stroop task. The suicidal patients took significantly longer to name the colors of suicide-related words compared with other wards, whereas color naming times of the control participants did not differ for suicide-related, neutral, positive, or negative words. Therefore, the attentional bias exhibited by suicidal patients was highly specific. There was no relation between the bias and measures of anxiety, depression, or hopelessness, whereas suicidal ideation correlated significantly with the attentional bias.