Future direction of suicidal risk assessment

2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (S1) ◽  
pp. S68-S68
Author(s):  
H. Blasco-Fontecilla

Objectiveto explore future directions on the assessment of the risk of suicidal behavior (SB).Methodsnarrative review of current and future methods to improving the assessment of the risk of suicidal behavior (SB).ResultsPredicting future SB is a long-standing goal. Currently, the identification of individuals at risk of SB is based on clinician's subjective reports. Unfortunately, most individuals at risk of SB often do not disclose their suicidal thoughts. In the near future, predicting the risk of SB will be enhanced by: (1) introducing objective, reliable measures – i.e. biomarkers – of suicide risk; (2) selecting the most discriminant variables, and developing more accurate measures – i.e. questionnaires – and models for suicide prediction; (3) incorporating new sources of information – i.e. facebook, online monitoring; (4) applying novel methodological instruments such as data mining, or computer adaptive testing; and, (5) most importantly, combining predictors from different domains (clinical, neurobiological and cognitive).ConclusionsGiven the multi-determined nature of SB, a combination of clinical, neuropsychological, biological, and neuroimaging factors, among other might help overcome current limitations in the prediction of SB. Furthermore, given the complexity of prediction of future SB, currently our efforts should be focused on the prevention of SB.Disclosure of interestThe author has not supplied his declaration of competing interest.

2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (S1) ◽  
pp. S68-S68
Author(s):  
J. Lopez-Castroman

Suicide is a major health issue with considerable human and economic costs. There have been many attempts to develop techniques capable of predicting future suicidal behavior, but known risk factors are insufficiently specific. However, during the last decades, technical developments have made possible the use of new technologies to assess potential clinical markers for psychiatric patients. In many cases the technologies are affordable, wearable and interconnected, multiplying the wealth of data resulting from their use. Quite logically, psychiatrists from all over the world are investing in recently developed devices for their research projects and have consequently started to collaborate with engineering and pattern recognition groups in the study of potential clinical markers. These groups provide the expertise and computational methods required to process this wealth of data, and can improve the classification accuracy to predict a certain condition using data mining techniques. In the field of suicidal behavior, new devices that capture promising predictors such as electrodermal response activity, some facial expressions or speech properties have been developed and are being tested. In view of these facts, during the workshop we will review some of the new methodologies that can be used for the assessment of suicidal risk and how can multidisciplinary and complementary approaches be implemented.Disclosure of interestThe author has not supplied his declaration of competing interest.


Crisis ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 164-170 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth L McGarvey ◽  
Ludmila A Kryzhanovskaya ◽  
Cheryl Koopman ◽  
Dennis Waite ◽  
Randolph J Canterbury

This study examines the relationships between the bonding style of an incarcerated adolescent with parents and his/her current feelings of self-esteem, hopelessness, and suicidal thoughts and attempts. It also investigates differences between bonding to mother and bonding to father. Some 296 incarcerated adolescents were interviewed using the Parental Bonding Instrument. Significant relationships were found between youths' self-esteem, hopelessness, and suicidal behavior and their bonding style. Youths whose parent(s) had a parental bonding style of affectionless control reported the greatest distress, and youths whose parent(s) had an optimal bonding style reported the least distress. Differences were found between bonding styles with the mother and with the father. Attachment theory may be useful in targeting incarcerated youths who have affectionless control bonding with parent(s) for special interventions since these youths are most at risk for psychosocial problems.


Crisis ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 80-86 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sami Hamdan ◽  
Nadine Melhem ◽  
Israel Orbach ◽  
Ilana Farbstein ◽  
Mohammad El-Haib ◽  
...  

Background: Relatively little is known about the role of protective factors in an Arab population in the presence of suicidal risk factors. Aims: To examine the role of protective factors in a subsample of in large Arab Kindred participants in the presence of suicidal risk factors. Methods: We assessed protective and risk factors in a sample of 64 participants (16 suicidal and 48 nonsuicidal) between 15 and 55 years of age, using a comprehensive structured psychiatric interview, the Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI), self-reported depression, anxiety, hopelessness, impulsivity, hostility, and suicidal behavior in first-degree and second-relatives. We also used the Religiosity Questionnaire and suicide attitude (SUIATT) and multidimensional perceived support scale. Results: Suicidal as opposed to nonsuicidal participants were more likely to have a lifetime history of major depressive disorder (MDD) (68.8% vs. 22.9% χ2 = 11.17, p = .001), an anxiety disorder (87.5% vs. 22.9, χ2 = 21.02, p < .001), or posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) (25% vs. 0.0%, Fisher’s, p = .003). Individuals who are otherwise at high risk for suicidality have a much lower risk when they experience higher perceived social support (3.31 ± 1.36 vs. 4.96 ± 1.40, t = 4.10, df = 62, p < .001), and they have the view that suicide is somehow unacceptable (1.83 ± .10 vs. 1.89 ± .07, t = 2.76, df = 60, p = .008). Conclusions: Taken together with other studies, these data suggest that the augmentation of protective factors could play a very important role in the prevention of incidental and recurrent suicidal behavior in Arab populations, where suicidal behavior in increasing rapidly.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ali Ahmed ◽  
Muhammad Saqlain ◽  
Maria Tanveer ◽  
Azhar Hussain Tahir ◽  
Fakhar Ud-Din ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Crimean Congo Haemorrhagic Fever (CCHF), a tropically neglected infectious disease caused by Nairovirus, is endemic in low middle-income countries like Pakistan. Emergency health care professionals (HCPs) are at risk of contracting nosocomial transmission of CCHF. We, therefore, aim to analyze the knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions (KAP) of at-risk physicians, nurses, and pharmacists in Pakistan and the factors associated with good KAP. Method A validated questionnaire (Cronbach’s alpha 0.71) was used to collect data from HCPs in two CCHF endemic metropolitan cities of Pakistan by employing a cross-sectional study design. For data analysis percentages, chi-square test and Spearman correlation were applied by using SPSS version 22. Results Of the 478 participants, 56% (n = 268) were physicians, 37.4% (n = 179) were nurses, and 6.5% (n = 31) were pharmacists. The proportion of HCPs with good knowledge, attitude, and perception scores was 54.3%, 81, and 69%, respectively. Being a physician, having more work experience, having a higher age, working in tertiary care settings, were key factors for higher knowledge (p < 0.001). The correlation coefficient showed significant positive correlation between attitude- perception (r = 0.560, p < 0.001). Conclusion We have observed average knowledge of HCPs. Therefore, we recommend time to time education campaigns and workshops in highly endemic CCHF regions to be launched by health ministries and HCPs, in particular nurses, encouraged to follow authentic academic sources of information to prevent nosocomial transmission.


2021 ◽  
Vol 54 (6) ◽  
pp. 1-35
Author(s):  
Ninareh Mehrabi ◽  
Fred Morstatter ◽  
Nripsuta Saxena ◽  
Kristina Lerman ◽  
Aram Galstyan

With the widespread use of artificial intelligence (AI) systems and applications in our everyday lives, accounting for fairness has gained significant importance in designing and engineering of such systems. AI systems can be used in many sensitive environments to make important and life-changing decisions; thus, it is crucial to ensure that these decisions do not reflect discriminatory behavior toward certain groups or populations. More recently some work has been developed in traditional machine learning and deep learning that address such challenges in different subdomains. With the commercialization of these systems, researchers are becoming more aware of the biases that these applications can contain and are attempting to address them. In this survey, we investigated different real-world applications that have shown biases in various ways, and we listed different sources of biases that can affect AI applications. We then created a taxonomy for fairness definitions that machine learning researchers have defined to avoid the existing bias in AI systems. In addition to that, we examined different domains and subdomains in AI showing what researchers have observed with regard to unfair outcomes in the state-of-the-art methods and ways they have tried to address them. There are still many future directions and solutions that can be taken to mitigate the problem of bias in AI systems. We are hoping that this survey will motivate researchers to tackle these issues in the near future by observing existing work in their respective fields.


2019 ◽  
Vol 48 (5) ◽  
pp. 799-810
Author(s):  
John E. Lochman ◽  
Caroline L. Boxmeyer ◽  
Francesca L. Kassing ◽  
Nicole P. Powell ◽  
Sara L. Stromeyer

2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (S1) ◽  
pp. S599-S599
Author(s):  
L. Espinosa ◽  
A. Fortea ◽  
G. Oriolo ◽  
M. Balcells ◽  
C. Oliveras

BackgroundThe relation between alcohol dependence and suicidal behavior is well known and alcohol consumption is a risk factor to take in consideration in order to prevent suicidal attempts. Wernicke encephalopathy (WE) is a common acute neurological disorder caused by thiamine deficiency frequently associated with alcohol use disorder and often infra-diagnosed. Just few cases are reported about the possible correlation between suicidal behaviour and Wernicke encephalopathy.ObjectiveTo describe the possible association between suicidal attempts and Wernicke encephalopathy.MethodsWe report the case of a 57 year old man, with past diagnosis of disthymia and amphetamine abuse disorder, and a history of bariatric surgery, who was hospitalized in the intensive care unit (ICU) of hospital clinic for a suicidal attempt by mean of metro railway precipitation. He presented two episodes of psychomotor agitation in the context of an abstinence syndrome that reverted with midazolam continuous perfusion and clonazepam 8 mg per day. Consequently to medical improvement, he was moved to Psychiatry Unit of Addictive Behavior and finally diagnosed with alcohol use disorder.ResultsIn the physical exam, bilateral nystagmus and cerebellar ataxia were observed. Signs of malnutrition were detected in the blood analysis. In a brain magnetic resonance image, volume deficits in the mammillary bodies, thalamus, cortex and corpus callosum, as well as peri-aqueductal altered signal were observed, all signs compatible with Wernicke encephalopathy diagnoses.ConclusionsWernicke encephalopathy is a frequent concomitant condition in patients with alcohol use disorder. The consequent cognitive decline could represent an independent added risk factor for suicidal behavior.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.


Author(s):  
Leo Sher

Abstract Adolescent suicide research has mostly focused on demographic risk factors. Such studies focus on who is at risk, but do not explain why certain adolescents are at risk for suicide. Studies of the neurobiology of adolescent suicide could clarify why some youths are more suicidal than others and help to find biological markers of suicidal behavior in teenagers. Over the past decade the role of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in the pathophysiology of suicidal behavior has attracted significant attention of scientists. BDNF is involved in the pathophysiology of many psychiatric disorders associated with suicidal behavior including depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, schizophrenia, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. BDNF dysregulation could be associated with increased suicidality independently of psychiatric diagnoses. BDNF plays an important role in the regulation and growth of neurons during childhood and adolescence. Prominent among the brain regions undergoing developmental change during adolescence are stressor-sensitive areas. The serotonin dysfunction found in adolescent and adult suicidal behavior could be related to the low level of BDNF, which impedes the normal development of serotonin neurons during brain development. BDNF dysfunction could play a more significant role in the pathophysiology of psychiatric disorders and suicidal behavior in adolescents than in adults. Treatment-induced enhancement in the BDNF function could reduce suicidal behavior secondary to the improvement in psychiatric pathology or independently of improvement in psychiatric disorders. It is interesting to hypothesize that BDNF could be a biological marker of suicidal behavior in adolescents or in certain adolescent populations.


2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (S1) ◽  
pp. S596-S596
Author(s):  
M. Arsenyan ◽  
S. Sukiasyan ◽  
T. Hovhannisyan

IntroductionScientific research indicates that accessibility of suicide means has a significant influence on the choice of method. Since the choice of suicide method largely depends on availability of suicide means, the lethality of method at hand plays a crucial role in a period of suicidal crisis.AimsWe aimed to reveal the associations between accessibility and availability of medications and toxic substances and suicidal behavior of teenage girls in Armenia.ObjectiveOur objectives were to determine whether accessibility and availability of medications and toxic substances have any impact on development of suicidal behavior among teenage girls in Armenia and whether toxicity and quantity of medications and toxic substances at hand or purchased by attempters are associated with severity of outcome.MethodsA qualitative analysis of patient histories of 26 teenage girls, hospitalized in the ICU, Toxicology Center “Muratsan”, Yerevan, RA, diagnosed as having acute deliberate self-poisoning was performed.ResultsIn majority of cases, conflict situation preceded suicidal behavior and decision on attempting suicide was impulsive. Being emotionally distressed teenage girls reached for medications and toxic substances readily available in the household or bought medications from a pharmacy.ConclusionThe vast majority of teenage girls attempted suicide by medications and toxic substances at hand. Admittedly, both, type of medication and quantity of pills or amount of toxic substances utilized, affected the severity of outcome. Hence, the availability and accessibility of medications and toxic substances played a crucial role in development of suicidal behavior and severity of outcome.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.


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