Religious Beliefs May Reduce the Negative Effect of Psychiatric Disorders on Age of Onset of Suicidal Ideation among Blacks in the United States

Objective: to evaluate the possible interaction between religiousbeliefs and psychiatric disorders among black americans.methods: in this study, we used data of 5181 adult blackamericans who had participated in national survey of americanlife (nsal) from february 2001 to june 2003. variables such associo-demographics, religious beliefs, and psychiatric disorderswere entered in a cox regression to determine the possibleinteraction between psychiatric disorders (0, 1, ?2) and thesubjective religiosity on age of onset of suicidal thought amongthe participants. main outcome was age of the first serious suicidalideation.results: a dose-dependent effect of number of psychiatricdisorders on suicidal ideation was observed. psychiatric disordershad a higher impact on age of suicidal ideation among those withlow self-reported religiosity.conclusion: religious beliefs may buffer the effect of psychiatricdisorders on suicidal thought. blacks who are less religious andsuffer psychiatric disorders are at the highest risk for early suicidalideation.