title: Suicide ideation at its worst point: a predictor of eventual suicide in psychiatric outpatients.
abstract: Scales for measuring current suicide ideation (SSI-C), suicide ideation at its worst point in the patient's life (SSI-W), and hopelessness (BHS) were administered to 3,701 outpatients seeking psychiatric treatment. Thirty patients from this sample eventually committed suicide, within a mean of 4 years from the initial assessment. Based on cut-off scores derived from receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analyses, the SSI-W had an odds ratio of 13.84 for predicting suicide, whereas the SSI-C and the BHS had odds ratios of 5.42 and 6.43, respectively. The assessment of suicide ideation at its worst point identifies a subgroup of patients at relatively high risk for eventual suicide. Robust interventions and periodic monitoring for suicide ideation and hopelessness are recommended to reduce long-term suicide risk.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis; D015897:Comorbidity; D003710:Demography; D005189:False Positive Reactions; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D019964:Mood Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis; D016017:Odds Ratio; D010554:Personality Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales / Q000592:standards*; D011594:Psychometrics; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012494:Sampling Studies; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis; D013405:Suicide / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000092864:Suicide Prevention