Background: The objective of the study is to assess the sociodemographic and clinical factors associated with past-year medication use and/or psychotherapy among adults with suicidal ideation in the past 12 months.
Methods: Data were drawn from the 2017 Health Barometer survey, a large computer-assisted telephone survey on a representative sample of the general population aged 18 to 75 years living in metropolitan France (n = 25,319). Logistic and multinomial regression analyses were used to study past-year medication use and/or psychotherapy as a function of sociodemographic and clinical factors. Analyses were restricted to individuals reporting suicidal ideation in the past year (n = 1,148).
Results: Overall, 43.6% of adults with suicidal ideation reported no treatment for a mental health reason in the past year; 36.6% reported using medication only, 4.8% psychotherapy only, and 15.0% both. Sociodemographic and clinical factors associated with increased probability of treatment varied as a function of the type of treatment received. Adjusting for key factors including clinical factors, older adults with suicidal ideation were more likely than younger adults to receive medication only.
Conclusions: The findings point to differential inequalities in access to medication and psychotherapy among adults with suicidal ideation in the general population of France.
Keywords: Suicidal ideation; mental health treatment; pharmacotherapy; psychotherapy; sex differences.