The most prevalent psychiatric disorders are mood, anxiety and somatoform (MAS) disorders which show high mutual comorbidity, childhood trauma and elevated risk of suicidality. So far, no studies have compared suicide risk in a secondary care population with comorbid MAS disorders. This gap was taken as starting point for the study.

In comparing suicidal and non-suicidal MAS patients, the following was examined: suicide risk in the three disorder groups, socio-demographic and clinical characteristics, occurrence of childhood trauma types and contribution of childhood trauma to suicidality.

This cross-sectional study compared suicidal (n = 316) versus non-suicidal comorbid MAS outpatients (n = 929) by means of the Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview Plus (MINI-Plus), Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI), Short Form Health Survey 36 (SF-36), Dimensional Assessment of Personality Pathology–Short Form (DAPP-SF) and Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ).

Compared to non-suicidal MAS patients, suicidal MAS patients mostly had mood disorders (single/comorbid), multiple diagnoses, worse functioning, more personality pathology (self-harm) and more childhood neglect and abuse.

Especially (comorbid) depressed patients are at risk for suicide, and routine screening and monitoring of childhood trauma and suicidality in them are recommended, along with the timely deployment of appropriate trauma-focused psychotherapy.