Evaluating the clinical utility of an easily applicable prediction model of suicide attempts, newly developed and validated with a general community sample of adults

Background A suicide attempt (SA) is a clinically serious action. Researchers have argued that reducing long-term SA risk may be possible, provided that at-risk individuals are identified and receive adequate treatment. Algorithms may accurately identify at-risk individuals. However, the clinical utility of algorithmically estimated long-term SA risk has never been the predominant focus of any […]

Psychological mechanisms of the development of suicidal ideation: Longitudinal cohort study

Introduction This study aimed to investigate the mechanisms of the development of suicidal ideation and its moderating and protective factors. Drawing on the Interpersonal-psychological theory of suicide, we proposed that disruptions to belongingness, in conjunction with tolerance of health risk, may influence the development of suicidal ideation above and beyond psychosocial changes such as disruptions […]

Clinical utility of depression measures and symptoms: Implications for suicide risk assessment in high risk, resource limited youth populations

Objective Suicide risk for youth in resource- limited settings has been largely underrepresented in the literature and requires targeted examination of practical ways to address this growing public health concern. The present study focuses on the clinical utility of depression risk assessment tools addressing how and for whom suicide prevention intervention is most beneficial within […]

Suicide Crisis Syndrome: A systematic review

Background The objective of this systematic review is to describe the scientific evidence for the Suicide Crisis Syndrome (SCS), a presuicidal cognitive and affective state consisting of five symptomatic dimensions: entrapment, affective disturbance, loss of cognitive control, hyperarousal, and social withdrawal. The aim of this article is to summarize the emerging literature on the SCS […]

Psychological risk factors predictive of suicidal distress in men receiving a community-based brief psychological intervention

Introduction Adaptable community-based approaches for assessment and delivery of suicide prevention interventions for men experiencing suicidal crisis are needed. The lay your cards on the table (LYCT) component of the James’ Place Model is a novel therapeutic approach comprised of four sets of card variables that correspond with suicidal risk factors. This study investigated the […]

Latent profile analysis of urges for suicidal and self-harming behavior: The role of social support instability

College counseling centers are seeing increasing rates of suicidal thoughts and behaviors, and nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) among students. The high degree of need and limited resources underscores the need for novel approaches to identify at-risk students. We used latent profile analysis (LPA) to identify subgroups of students (n = 371) with different patterns of interpersonal factors and […]

Evaluation of the outcomes of the Quebec provincial suicide prevention gatekeeper training on knowledge, recognition of attitudes, perceived self-efficacy, intention to help, and helping behaviors

Introduction Gatekeeper (GK) training is a suicide prevention strategy in which community members learn to identify individuals at risk of suicide and refer them for appropriate help. Despite its widespread use, few studies have investigated its effects, including changes in helping behaviors. Aims To assess the impact of GK training on participants’ knowledge, recognition of […]

Quantitative content analysis of Freedom of Information requests examining the extent and variations of tools and training for conducting suicide risk assessments in NHS Trusts across England

Objectives Determining the risk for suicide is a difficult endeavour. Clinical guidance in the UK explicitly advises against using risk assessment tools and scales to determine suicide risk. Based on Freedom of Information (FoI) requests made to NHS Trusts in England, this study provides an overview of suicide risk assessment tools in use, training provided in […]

Psychologists’ experiences conducting suicide risk assessments: A phenomenological study

Psychologists conduct suicide risk assessments (SRAs) regularly to identify and prevent clients’ self-harm and risk of death, although little is known about their experiences of the process. In this phenomenological study, five registered psychologists (master’s and doctoral level) were interviewed to explore the essence of their SRA experiences. Psychologists reported weaving tenets of assessment and […]

Suicide risk assessment and prevention tools in the UK: Current landscape and future directions

Suicide is a major global public health problem, with profound implications for individuals, families, and communities. In the United Kingdom (UK), despite efforts to detect and manage suicidal ideas, suicide rates persist, especially among middle-aged men and women, particularly those aged 45 to 54 years. Recent global challenges, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, […]

Disclosure of suicidal ideation in non-psychiatric clinical research: Experience using a novel suicide risk management algorithm in a multi-center smoking cessation trial

Background Clinical trials involving pharmacologic or behavioral treatments often assess depression and suicidal ideation for purposes of screening, baseline assessment of potential moderators or mediators of treatment, or as a study outcome, even if the primary condition under study is not a mental health disorder. Suicide risk management in the context of clinical research poses […]

Psychologists’ practices, training, and experiences conducting suicide risk assessment in Canada: An explanatory sequential mixed methods study

The purpose of this study was to understand how, or if, psychologists in Canada have been incorporating this information into their practice, as well as more broadly understanding how they learn and experience the process of suicide risk assessment (SRA). To do this, I used a sequential explanatory mixed methods approach, which integrates both quantitative […]

Evaluation of the outcomes of the Quebec provincial suicide prevention gatekeeper training on knowledge, recognition of attitudes, perceived self-efficacy, intention to help, and helping behaviors

Introduction: Gatekeeper (GK) training is a suicide prevention strategy in which community members learn to identify individuals at risk of suicide and refer them for appropriate help. Despite its widespread use, few studies  have investigated its effects, including changes in helping behaviors. Aims: To assess the impact of GK training on participants’ knowledge, recognition of […]

Validity of short-term assessment of risk and treatability in the Japanese Forensic Probation Service

This study aimed to evaluate the predictive validity and reliability of the Short-Term Assessment of Risk and Treatability (START) in the context of the Japanese forensic probation service. START is a structured professional judgement guide for risk domains concerning negative behaviors such as violence, self-harm, suicide, substance abuse, unauthorized leave, victimization, and self-neglect. In this […]

One-week suicide risk prediction using real-time smartphone monitoring: Prospective cohort study

Background Suicide is a major global public health issue that is becoming increasingly common despite preventive efforts. Though current methods for predicting suicide risk are not sufficiently accurate, technological advances provide invaluable tools with which we may evolve toward a personalized, predictive approach. Objective We aim to predict the short-term (1-week) risk of suicide by […]

Risk detection and suicide prevention in the workplace (IN: Davidson, J.E., Richardson, M. (Eds)., Workplace Wellness: From Resiliency to Suicide Prevention and Grief Management)

Suicide is a serious public health problem, a leading cause of death in the United States overall and the fourth leading cause for work-age Americans of 16–64 years. Among health care professionals, research finds elevated suicide risk among certain disciplines, including physicians and nurses. The impact of suicide encompasses emotional, health, and fiscal burdens of […]

Effects of community-based caring contact in reducing thwarted belongingness among postdischarge young adults with self-harm: Randomized controlled trial

Background: For patients with self-harm behaviors, the urge to hurt themselves persists after hospital discharge, leading to costly readmissions and even death. Hence, postdischarge intervention programs that reduce self-harm behavior among patients should be part of a cogent community mental health care policy. Objective: We aimed to determine whether a combination of a self-help mobile […]

Beyond human expertise: The promise and limitations of ChatGPT in suicide risk assessment

ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence language model developed by OpenAI, holds the potential for contributing to the field of mental health. Nevertheless, although ChatGPT theoretically shows promise, its clinical abilities in suicide prevention, a significant mental health concern, have yet to be demonstrated. To address this knowledge gap, this study aims to compare ChatGPT’s assessments of […]

Mental health nurses’ attitudes towards risk assessment: An integrative systematic review

WHAT IS KNOWN ON THE SUBJECT?: Risk assessment and risk management are considered to be important practices carried out by mental health nurses. Risk assessment can help keep mental health service users’ safe, but some nurses see it as a ‘tick the box’ exercise. Some studies have looked at nurses’ attitudes to risk assessment but […]

Suicide risk assessments: A scientific and ethical critique

There are widely held premises that suicide is almost exclusively the result of mental illness and there is “strong evidence for successfully detecting and managing suicidality in healthcare” (Hogan and Grumet, 2016). In this context, ‘zero-suicide’ policies have emerged, and suicide risk assessment tools have become a normative component of psychiatric practice. This essay discusses […]

ChatGPT for suicide risk assessment on social media: Quantitative evaluation of model performance, potentials and limitations

This paper presents a novel framework for quantitatively evaluating the interactive ChatGPT model in the context of suicidality assessment from social media posts, utilizing the University of Maryland Reddit suicidality dataset. We conduct a technical evaluation of ChatGPT’s performance on this task using Zero-Shot and Few-Shot experiments and compare its results with those of two […]

Toward automatic risk assessment to support suicide prevention

Background: Suicide has been considered an important public health issue for years and is one of the main causes of death worldwide. Despite prevention strategies being applied, the rate of suicide has not changed substantially over the past decades. Suicide risk has proven extremely difficult to assess for medical specialists, and traditional methodologies deployed have been […]

Combining psychological theory with language models for suicide risk detection (IN Findings of the Association for Computational Linguistics: EACL 2023, edited by A. Vlachos & I. Augenstein)

With the increased awareness of situations of mental crisis and their societal impact, online services providing emergency support are becoming commonplace in many countries. Computational models, trained on discussions between help-seekers and providers, can support suicide prevention by identifying at-risk individuals. However, the lack of domain-specific models, especially in low-resource languages, poses a significant challenge […]