ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychiatry
Sec. Psychopathology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1653961
High Place Phenomenon, Obsessive-Compulsive Symptoms and Suicidality
Provisionally accepted
- 1University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran
- 2Humboldt-Universitat zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany
- 3Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Faculty of Psychology, Ruhr University Bochum, Bochum, Germany
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Background: The high place phenomenon (HPP), referring to a sudden urge to jump when standing in a high place, occurs frequently in both suicidal and non-suicidal individuals. Despite apparent similarities, researchers have not yet examined potential associations with obsessive-compulsive symptoms, nor has the phenomenon been explored in a non-Western society. Methods: The study comprises two samples of Iranian adults: An online sample including N = 257 participants (54% male; Mage=37.03, SDage= 11.51) and a sample of mobility impaired participants including N= 233 participants (56.2% male; Mage=37.84, SDage= 9.75, range: 18-68 years). All participants filled out questionnaires on experiences with the high place phenomenon, depression, suicidal ideation/behavior, anxiety sensitivity and obsessive-compulsive symptoms. Results: Between 39% and 62% of participants reported being familiar with the HPP. In both samples, obsessive-compulsive symptoms showed a significant association with the severity of the phenomenon, even after accounting for depression, suicidal ideation/behavior, and anxiety sensitivity. The presence of the HPP was only associated with obsessive-compulsive symptoms in one of the two samples. Conclusion: Findings point to the cross-cultural nature of the HPP. Furthermore, the association between obsessive-compulsive symptoms and the HPP speaks to a conceptualization of the HPP as being part of the phenomenological field of (subsyndromal) OCD symptoms.
Keywords: High place phenomenon, Suicidal Ideation, obsessive-compulsive symptoms, Anxiety Sensitivity, Call of the Void
Received: 25 Jun 2025; Accepted: 20 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Asgari, Naghavi, Abbasi, Ertle, Wiesmann and Teismann. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Tobias Teismann, tobias.teismann@rub.de
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