Understanding suicidal ideation and behaviour in individuals with chronic pain: A review of the role of novel transdiagnostic psychological factors

Individuals with chronic pain are at elevated risk of suicide, yet psychosocial factors that may be involved in increasing or decreasing vulnerability for suicidal ideation and behaviour have received little attention. Extant literature on the topic of suicide in individuals with chronic pain only incorporates a limited number of the wide array of known vulnerability and protective factors from the field of suicide research. The current review focuses on transdiagnostic psychological processes, i.e. processes of relevance for both chronic pain and suicide. We synthesize a selection of the previous literature on chronic pain and suicide, concentrating on previously unexplored and underexplored lines of research, including future orientation, mental imagery and psychological flexibility. A far greater degree of cross-pollination between the fields of chronic pain and suicide research is required if we are to progress in our understanding of why some people with chronic pain become suicidal and others do not.