Citation

Woodford R, Spittal MJ, Milner A, McGill K, Kapur N, Pirkis J, Mitchell A, Carter G. Suicide Life Threat. Behav. 2019; 49(1): 23-40.

Affiliation

Centre for Brain and Mental Health Research, University of Newcastle, Newcastle, NSW, Australia.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, American Association of Suicidology, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/sltb.12395

PMID

28972271

Abstract

Assessment of a patient after hospital-treated self-harm or psychiatric hospitalization often includes a risk assessment, resulting in a classification of high risk versus low risk for a future episode of self-harm. Through systematic review and a series of meta-analyses looking at unassisted clinician risk classification (eight studies; N = 22,499), we found pooled estimates for sensitivity 0.31 (95% CI: 0.18-0.50), specificity 0.85 (0.75-0.92), positive predictive value 0.22 (0.21-0.23), and negative predictive value 0.89 (0.86-0.92). Clinician classification was too inaccurate to be clinically useful. After-care should therefore be allocated on the basis of a needs rather than risk assessment.

© 2017 The American Association of Suicidology.

Language: en