title: Effect of a legal prime on clinician's assessment of suicide risk.
abstract: The present study evaluates how liability influences mental health clinicians' assessment of suicide risk. In this online vignette-based experiment, clinicians (N = 268) were either primed with a legal standard prior to a case vignette or presented the case vignette alone. Clinicians then rated the patient's likelihood of suicide and need for hospitalization. Results indicated that trainees provided significantly lower ratings of suicide risk following presentation of the legal standard, but this was not associated with hospitalization endorsement. Results have training and legal implications for improving the accuracy of suicide risk assessment in both trainees and licensed professionals.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychiatry , Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School , Boston , Massachusetts , USA.
authors.forename: Noah Chase
authors.initials: NC
authors.lastname: Berman
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychiatry , Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School , Boston , Massachusetts , USA.
authors.forename: Alexandra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sullivan
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychiatry , Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School , Boston , Massachusetts , USA.
authors.forename: Sabine
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wilhelm
authors.affiliation: b Law School, Harvard University , Cambridge , Massachusetts , USA.
authors.forename: I Glenn
authors.initials: IG
authors.lastname: Cohen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D017007:Duty to Warn / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D005260:Female; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D006801:Humans; D016365:Liability, Legal; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009511:New England; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians' / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D011570:Psychiatry / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D018570:Risk Assessment; D055815:Young Adult; D000092864:Suicide Prevention