Validation of six Risk Scales for Suicide Attempters (IN: Current Issues of Suicidology, ed. by H J Moller, A Schmidtke & R Welz)

This study analyzes 6 risk scales for suicide attempters to evaluate their effectiveness at identifying those who eventually complete suicide & those who repeat attempts. The authors found that none of the risk scales predicted suicidal behavior with reasonable accuracy. They recognize that it is difficult to predict a rare event like suicide with accuracy, but feel that more specific instuments should be developed to differentiate between diagnostic groups like depressives & alcoholics. (VM)