Religiosity as a protective factor against suicide ideation in subjects with Major Depression: preliminary results of an exploratory study in the “real world” clinical practice

The goal of this study was to evaluate the potential relationships between re- ligiosity and suicide ideation in drug-naïve outpatients with Major Depression (MDD). Filthy-four adult outpatients with MDD were assessed through the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAM-D), the Duke University Religion Index (DU- REL), and the Scale of Suicide Ideation (SSI). The results showed that the DUREL scale exhibited a strong negative correlation with MDD and SSI and, conversely, HAM-D was positively correlated with SSI. Moreover, regression analysis showed that higher DUREL scores were associ- ated with lower suicide ideation, whereas higher HAM-D scores were associ- ated with higher suicide ideation. In conclusion, religiosity may be a protective factor against the development of suicide ideation, despite the severity of depressive symptoms. The evaluation of religiosity as a protective factor should be performed in MDD subjects in everyday clinical practice. However, this study was preliminary, and limitations must be considered.