Citation

Shin KE, Baroni A, Gerson RS, Bell KA, Pollak OH, Tezanos K, Spirito A, Cha CB. Child Psychiatry Hum. Dev. 2023; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2023, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s10578-023-01507-y

PMID

36821015

Abstract

Suicide screening is critical in pediatric emergency departments (EDs). Behavioral measures of suicide risk may complement self-report measures. The current study examines suicide-specific behavioral measures and tests their potential short-term within-person effects among respondents, ability to discriminate future suicide attempt from suicidal ideation, and translation into interpretable categorical composite scores. The sample included 167 youth (10-17 years), presenting for suicide-related reasons to a pediatric psychiatric ED. During their ED visit, participants completed the Death/Life Implicit Association Test (IAT) and the Suicide Stroop Task. Recurrent suicidal thoughts and attempts were assessed within 6 months of the ED visit via medical records and email surveys. Youth displayed a decrease in the levels of distress and self-injurious desires (negative mood, desire to hurt themselves, and desire to die) after completing the behavioral tasks. The Death/Life IAT prospectively differentiated with 68% accuracy between youth who attempted suicide after their ED visit and those who had suicidal ideation but no attempt, p = 0.04, OR = 5.65, although this effect became marginally significant after controlling for self-report and demographic covariates. Neither the Suicide Stroop Task, nor the categorical composite scores predicted suicide attempts, ps = 0.08-0.87, ORs = 0.96-3.95. Behavioral measures of suicide risk administered in the ED do not appear to increase distress or self-injurious desires. They may be able to distinguish those who go on to attempt suicide (vs. consider suicide) within six months after discharge.

Language: en

Keywords

Suicide; Youth; Emergency department; Emotional stroop task; Implicit association test