Monitoring, assessing, and responding to suicide risk in clinical research.

2019/12/23 by Heather T. Schatten, Brandon A. Gaudiano, Jennifer M. Primack +6 · 37 citations
Medicine · Psychology · #Clinical psychology #Human factors and ergonomics #Injury prevention #Medical emergency #Medicine #Mental Health Treatment and Access #Poison control #Psychiatry #Psychology #Suicide and Self-Harm Studies #Suicide prevention #Traumatic Brain Injury Research

paper · open access · doi:10.1037/abn0000489

published in Journal of Abnormal Psychology 129(1), 64-69 (American Psychological Association)

openalex publication_date 2019/12/23 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01

Abstract

It is essential that investigators in clinical research settings follow ethical guidelines for monitoring, assessing, and responding to suicide risk. Given the unique considerations associated with suicide risk assessment in a research context, resources informing the development of research-specific suicide risk management procedures are needed. With decades of collective experience across heterogeneous contexts, we discuss approaches to monitoring, assessing, and responding to suicide risk as a function of study sample (e.g., students, psychiatric inpatients), data collection methodologies (e.g., interview, self-report, or ecological momentary assessment), and study design (e.g., treatment research). Additional considerations include training and supervision of staff to identify suicide risk, coordination of others to respond to risk, and documentation of procedures. Finally, we attend to the impact of these procedures on the external validity of outcome data. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Citations

• The Columbia–Suicide Severity Rating Scale: Initial Validity and Internal Consistency Findings From Three Multisite Studies With Adolescents and Adults
• The PhenX Toolkit: Get the Most From Your Measures

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