Symposia
Global Mental Health
April Smith, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Auburn University
Auburn, Alabama
Shruti S. S. Kinkel-Ram, M.A.
Clinical Psychology Doctoral Student
Miami University
Oxford, Ohio
William Grunwald, PhD
Graduate Student
Auburn University
Auburn, Alabama
Tony Sam George, Ph.D.
Professor
Christ University
Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
Vaishali V. Raval, Ph.D.
Professor
Miami University
Oxford, Ohio
Although 20% of the world’s suicides occur in India, suicide prevention efforts in India are lagging (Vijayakumar et al., 2021). Identification of risk factors for suicide in India, as well as the development of accessible interventions to treat these risk factors, could help reduce suicide in India. Interoceptive dysfunction—or an inability to recognize internal sensations in the body—has emerged as a robust correlate of suicidality among studies conducted in the United States. Mindfulness-based treatments have proven effective in reducing suicidality (e.g., DBT), though they are costly to deliver in terms of time and resources, particularly in Low-and Middle-Income Countries where there are few trained professionals available to deliver them. Thus, interventions that are brief and scalable are needed. The purpose of the current studios was to first confirm whether poor interoception relates to suicidality among young adults in India, as has been repeatedly found in US samples, and to evaluate a brief intervention, Reconnecting to Internal Sensations and Experiences (RISE; Smith et al., 2021).
We recruited college students from a university in Bengaluru located in South India that attracts students from all across the country. Results of Study 1 (n = 276, 53% male, Mage = 20.62 years) showed that specific aspects of interoceptive dysfunction were related to current, past, and future likelihood of suicidal ideation. Specifically, the more individuals distracted from sensations of pain or discomfort, the more individuals worried about or experienced emotional distress regarding sensations of pain or discomfort, and the less individuals trusted their bodies, the more suicidal ideation they experienced. A subset of study 1 sample (n = 40, 80% male, Mage = 21.03 years) participated in study 2, which was a small, uncontrolled pre-post online pilot of the intervention RISE, a four-session, web-based training focusing on bodily awareness, body functionality, emotion awareness, and intuitive eating. The intervention was rated as highly acceptable and demonstrated good retention. Additionally, the intervention was associated with improvements in certain aspects of interoceptive dysfunction and reductions in suicidal ideation and eating pathology. These results highlight the relevance of brief, web-based interventions among college students in India and indicate that further testing among Indian samples is warranted.