Emotion dysregulation and dissociative experiences have been associated with suicidal thoughts and behaviors, but their interrelationship among psychiatric patients with a history of suicidality remains insufficiently understood. This study compared emotion dysregulation and dissociative experiences between psychiatric patients with current or past suicidal ideation (SI) and/or suicide attempts (SA) and community controls, and examined their associations with SI severity within the clinical group.

A total of 172 participants were included: 91 psychiatric patients ( M age = 40.4, SD = 17.3) with current or past SI and/or SA, and 81 community controls ( M age = 29.6, SD = 10.8) reporting no psychiatric disorders, lifetime SI/SA, or current psychotropic medication use. Between-group differences were examined using general linear models controlling for age, with heteroscedasticity-consistent robust standard errors. Spearman’s rank correlations were used to examine associations within the clinical group.

Compared with community controls, the clinical group reported higher levels of emotion dysregulation (η²ₚ = .484), compartmentalization (η²ₚ = .347), detachment (η²ₚ = .324), and bodily dissociation (η²ₚ = .222; all p < .001 ). Within the clinical group, SI severity was positively correlated with bodily dissociation (ρ = .507), difficulties in emotion regulation strategies (ρ = .414), detachment (ρ = .404), difficulties pursuing goals (ρ = .393), compartmentalization (ρ = .388), emotional non-acceptance (ρ = .355), and emotional clarity difficulties (ρ = .346; all p < .001). Associations were also observed with impulse control difficulties (ρ = .254, p  = .015), whereas the association with emotional awareness was not statistically significant (ρ = .131, p  = .217).

Emotion dysregulation and dissociative experiences were reported at higher levels in the clinical group and were associated with SI severity within that group. These differences cannot be attributed specifically to suicidality because the groups also differed in psychiatric status, recruitment, and treatment context. The cross-sectional findings do not establish causal relationships or independent contributions to SI severity. Furthermore, the absence of trauma-related measures limits the interpretation of dissociative experiences in this sample. Future studies including psychiatric comparison groups without suicidality and longitudinal or intervention designs are needed to clarify the specificity and clinical significance of these associations.