Traumatising experiences have been shown to be important in suicide ideation and attempt. A prolonged and continuous exposure to stressing interpersonal events can have more complex consequences. Therefore, the concept of Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (C-PTSD) has been emerging.

Our goal is to relate the symptoms of C-PTSD with suicide attempt and to evaluate the differences between C-PTSD and PTSD on those patients. Moreover, we compared our findings with a control population without prior suicide attempts.

Fifty patients that had been hospitalised in the Psychiatry ward following a suicide attempt were evaluated one week after the event with the ICD-11 Trauma Questionnaire (PTSD and C-PTSD). The same evaluation was performed on a control population without known suicide attempts.

There is a statistically significant relationship (P < 0.001) between the symptoms of C-PTSD and PTSD and suicide attempt, which effect is higher for C-PTSD. These symptoms are almost absent in the control group.

C-PTSD seams to be a more relevant risk factor for suicidal attempts. This aspect is important to define preventive and treatment programs and for suicidal attempts follow-up. The importance of traumatic events and of traumatic stress symptoms as moderator factors should be considered in future research.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.