Suicide Inquiry in Primary Care: Creating Context, Inquiring, and Following Up

152 primary care physicians were randomly recruited (53-61% of those approached) from 4 sites in northern California & Rochester, New York to participate in a study assessing the effect of a patient’s request for antidepressant medication on a physician’s prescribing behaviour. Standardized patients portraying 2 conditions & 3 antidepressant request types made 298 unannounced visits between May 2003-May 2004. Patients were instructed to deny suicidality if asked. The subset of 91 transcripts containing a distinct suicide inquiry were identified for inductive analysis & review. Most inquiries used clear terminology. Most queries were preceded by statements focusing on psychosocial concerns & most physician responses to a denial of ideation were followed up with relevant statements. (32 refs.)