Severity progression markers of suicide-risk depression among undergraduate students in Brazil

Abstract

Aims: Mood disorders are highly prevalent among young undergraduate students and, in more severe cases, can lead to suicide. This study aimed to identify progression markers of depressive symptoms with suicide risk among undergraduate students. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional survey of 996 undergraduates at a southern Brazilian public university. We calculated the chance of classifying individuals as 'not depressed, no suicide risk', 'depressed, no suicide risk', or 'depressed, suicide risk' according to individual characteristics using multinomial regression. Results: The prevalence of depressive symptoms and suicide risk in the sample were 38.3% and 15.7%, respectively. Severity progression markers included a history of domestic violence in childhood, non-heterosexual sexual orientation, food insecurity, enrollment in a humanities course, dissatisfaction with the course, frequent and heavy use of alcohol, and clinical levels of anxiety and stress. Conclusions: In the university context, researchers can utilize the results of this study to identify cases with an increased risk of suicide early on. In addition to screening for clinically relevant depressive symptoms, assessing the severity progression markers identified in this investigation may help prevent the worsening of cases and, ultimately, suicide itself.