Reflection, brooding, and suicidality: a preliminary study of different types of rumination in individuals with a history of major depression.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the relationship between reflection, brooding, and suicidality in participants with a history of major depression. METHOD: Participants were divided into three groups - those who had never been suicidal (N=11), suicide ideators (N=11), and suicide attempters (N=10). Participants completed the Ruminative Responses Scale to explore scores on the brooding and reflection subscales in each group. RESULTS: There was a significant interaction between groups and type of self-focused thinking: suicide attempters more strongly endorsed brooding than reflection, whilst non-suicidal, but previously depressed individuals showed the reverse trend. Suicidal and non-suicidal groups differed significantly in levels of reflection, but did not differ significantly in levels of brooding. CONCLUSIONS: Deficits in reflection appear to be linked to suicidality in major depression consistent with evidence of problem-solving deficits in these groups.