Development of a Clinical Instrument to Estimate Suicide Risk

Details the development of an empirical suicide risk scale for adults hospitalized due to a depressive or suicidal state. The authors studied 2753 such subjects prospectively regarding 101 psychosocial variables. In a 2-year follow-up, 136 of the subjects had committed suicide. Rigorous statistical analysis, including a validation procedure, indentified 15 variables as significant predictors of suicidal outcome. These were translated into scale giving an estimated suicide risk within 2 yrs.