title: The suicide assessment scale: psychometric properties of a Norwegian language version.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Rating scales are valuable tools in suicide research and can also be useful supplements to the clinical interview in suicide risk assessments. This study describes the psychometric properties of a Norwegian language version of the Suicide Assessment Scale Self-report version (SUAS-S).
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants were fifty-two patients (mean age = 39.3 years, SD = 10.7) with major depression (53.8%), bipolar disorder (25.0%) and/or a personality disorder (63.5%) referred to a psychiatric outpatient clinic. The SUAS-S, the screening section of the Beck Scale for Suicidal Ideation (BSS-5), the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Beck's Hopelessness Scale (BHS), the Symptom Check-List-90 R (SCL-90R) and the Clinical Global Impression for Severity of Suicidality (CGI-SS) were administered. One week later, the patients completed the SUAS-S a second time.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Cronbach's alpha for SUAS-S was 0.88 and the test-retest reliability was 0.95 (95% CI: 0.93- 0.97). SUAS-S was positively correlated with the BSS-5 (r = 0.66; 95% CI: 0.47-0.85) for the study sample as a whole and for the suicidal (r = 0.52) and non-suicidal groups (r = 0.50) respectively. There was no difference between the SUAS-S and the BSS-5 in the ability to identify suicidality. This ability was more pronounced when the suicide risk was high. There was a substantial intercorrelation between the score on the SUAS-S and the BDI (0.81) and the BHS (0.76). The sensitivity and specificity of the SUAS-S was explored and an appropriate clinical cut-off value was assessed.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The study revealed good internal consistency, test-retest reliability and concurrent validity for the Suicide Assessment Scale Self-report version. The discriminatory ability for suicidality was comparable to that of the BSS-5.
authors.affiliation: Vestre Viken Health Trust, Ringerike Hospital psychiatric out-patient clinic, Oslo, Norway.
authors.forename: Bjørn Odd
authors.initials: BO
authors.lastname: Koldsland
authors.forename: Lars
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Mehlum
authors.forename: Liv Solrunn
authors.initials: LS
authors.lastname: Mellesdal
authors.forename: Fredrik A
authors.initials: FA
authors.lastname: Walby
authors.forename: Lien M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Diep
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009664:Norway; D011594:Psychometrics; D018570:Risk Assessment; D013405:Suicide