The relationship between internalizing psychopathology and suicidality, treatment seeking, and disability in the Australian population

BackgroundRecent evidence has emerged suggesting that multiple mood and anxiety disorders may be better assessed using a single dimension representing internalizing liability. The current study seeks to demonstrate the validity and utility of internalizing liability when accounting for suicidality, treatment seeking, and disability over and above any disorder specific relationship.MethodsData were from the 2007 Australian National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing. A model containing a single factor was fit to the data as a means of explaining the shared relationship across seven DSM-IV mood and anxiety disorders. The shared and specific relationships between lifetime and past 12 months internalizing and mental health consultations, suicidality, and disability were examined using Multiple Indicators, Multiple Causes models.ResultsGeneral levels of latent internalizing were significantly related to all covariates of interest across both lifetime and past 12 months diagnoses. Models that included the specific relationship between various internalizing disorders and the clinical correlates failed to significantly improve model fit over and above a model that already included the general relationship between latent internalizing and the covariates.LimitationsLimitations include the use of cross-sectional data and diagnostic assessments based on self-report lay-administered interviews.ConclusionsThe overall internalizing latent variable sufficiently explains the majority of the relationship between multiple mood and anxiety disorders and suicidality, treatment seeking, and disability. Researchers should focus on investigating the shared or common components across all mood and anxiety disorders particularly with respect to individuals presenting with higher rates of suicidality, treatment seeking behavior, and disability.