TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2021//
TI  - Universal pediatric suicide risk screening in a health care system: 90,000 patient encounters
JO  - Journal of the Academy of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry
A1  - Roaten, Kimberly
A1  - Horowitz, Lisa M.
A1  - Bridge, Jeffrey A.
A1  - Goans, Christian R. R.
A1  - McKintosh, Chris
A1  - Genzel, Russell
A1  - Johnson, Celeste
A1  - North, Carol S.
SP  - ePub
EP  - ePub
VL  - ePub
IS  - ePub
N2  - Background  Suicidal behavior is increasing among US youths. Contact with the health care system is common in the months before suicide. <br><br>OBJECTIVE: To assess the characteristics of suicide risk among youths presenting for health care, universal screening results from a large hospital system were analyzed.     Methods  A retrospective analysis of the Ask Suicide-Screening Questions tool administered to patients aged 10-17 years in a hospital system including an emergency department, inpatient medical units, and primary care clinics was conducted. Demographic and clinical data from 3 years of encounters were analyzed.     Results  The sample consisted of 91,580 pediatric encounters, predominantly white Hispanic and women, with one-third speaking Spanish. Across health care settings, 2.9% of encounters produced positive suicide risk screens, with the highest rate in the emergency department (8.5%). Acute positive screens, indicating imminent risk for suicidal behavior, accounted for 0.3% of all encounters. Approximately one-fourth (27.6%) of encounters for psychiatric presenting problems screened positive compared with 2.3% for nonpsychiatric encounters. Higher rates of positive screens were present among encounters for psychiatric presenting problems across all settings. Positive screens were less common among preteen (1.8%) than adolescent (3.1%) encounters (χ2 = 65.50, P < 0.001).     Conclusions  Universal screening detected suicide risk in approximately 3% of pediatric health care encounters. Screening identified risk in encounters among preteen and adolescent patients, with a higher prevalence of positive screens in encounters for youths presenting with psychiatric problems and for emergency department visits. Acute positive screens were rare, occurring in less than half of 1 percent of encounters.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 2667-2979
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jaclp.2020.12.002
ID  - ref1
ER  -