Psychological pain and previous suicide attempts in young adults: Results with the Portuguese version of the Psychache Scale

Abstract

Objectives: In this study, we tested whether the unbearable pain scale of the Psychache Scale provides value for the statistical prediction of a previous suicide attempt; we evaluated whether psychological pain has incremental value in the statistical prediction of a previous suicide attempt relative to the reporting of having had a psychiatric diagnosis, and we established a cut‐score for the Psychache Scale. Method: Two samples participated: a sample consisting of 1,460 young adults and a sample of 628 Portuguese community adults. Results and Conclusions: Results demonstrated that unbearable pain is not a stronger predictor of a previous suicide attempt than is the bearable pain score of the Psychache Scale; that the total score of the Psychache scale provides an additional statistically significant contribution to the statistical prediction of a previous suicide attempt relative to the reporting of having had a psychiatric diagnosis.