Hi,

one important question is, whether you need this evaluation of suicidality for research or for clinical purposes. For research you might use the questionnaires mentioned by the other colleagues, for clinical situation you should not base your decisions on such tools but on a thorough clinical investigation and your personal impression of the transference situation, which happens during the interview.

Hi,

I totally agree with you.Indeed, I'm looking for something to be used in clinical practice but I would need an easy to administered tool, which can be part of a brief interview to support my assessment, as I have a very limited time to perform it in this specific setting (that is after a Forensic Interview).

A the moment we use the following:

SDQ- Goodman R (1997) The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire: A Research Note. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 38, 581-586.

CROPS/PROPS- Child/Parent Report of Post-traumatic Symptoms child symptom self-report. - Greenwald, R. & Rubin, A. (1999). Brief assessment of children's post-traumatic symptoms: Development and preliminary validation of parent and child scales. Research on Social Work Practice, 9,61-75.

It might be the case that the whole process needs to be reviewed but in the meantime I'd rather like to adjust it, if it's possible and if something suitable, and maybe already used somewhere else, can be found to fit my purpose.

Thanks

Hi Gloriana,

I absolutely understand the situation, to consider, with very few time, about the most dangerous situation in psychiatry. For this purpose, the questionnaires you mentioned may be of worth, especially because through applying them, suicidality will be a regular focus in every patient examined. By getting clinical practise in this field it would be also very helpful to train in recognizing countertransference reactions, like feeling of "no contact with the patient", being tired, thinking of private issues during the interview and connecting this with possible suicidality in the patient.

All the best.

Hi Gloriana,

I understand the clinical context very well. I coordinate an EU funded project - Suicidality: Treatment Occurring in Paediatrics (STOP), which specifically involved developing web-based 'easy to use' measures using the HealthTrackerTM platform which uses computer adaptive testing. The STOP Suicidality Risk and Resilience Scale; STOP Medication Side-effects Suicidality Scale; and the STOP Suicidality Assessment Scale (a measure of suicidal thoughts, behaviour and non-suicidal self-injury) have been developed in English, translated into Spanish, French, Dutch, German and Italian and can be completed by patients and parents remotely, allowing the clinician to use his limited clinic time more effectively. The scales have undergone initial validation and is currently being used in 6 cohorts of children who are each being followed up for 52 weeks :- 8 to 18 year old cohorts who are on antipsychotics (risperidone, aripiprazole) for any condition; a depression cohort undergoing treatment (fluoxetine, CBT); a cohort being treated for respiratory allergies or asthma (with montelukast or other medications), and a cohort of healthy normal controls. The completed data will be analysed in April 2015 and the 3 instruments will be available for clinical and research use. Apart from the three STOP instruments, the HealthTrackerTM (a web-based health monitoring platform) includes psychopathology / side-effects / QoL measures for children/adolescents/parents/teachers/clinicians (including animated ones for younger children) and helps longitudinal monitoring. It is possible that this system may assist in your clinical practice.

The STOP website can be accessed at http://www.stop-study.com

I hope this helps.

Best wishes

Something else which you may wish to look at is the Self-Injurious Thoughts and Behaviors Interview (SITBI). "Nock, M. K., Holmberg, E. B., Photos, V. I. , & *Michel, B. D. (2007). The Self-Injurious Thoughts and Behaviors Interview: Development, reliability, and validity in an adolescent sample. Psychological Assessment, 19, 309-317." There is a long form and a short form (I mainly use the short-form in my research). One of the good things about this measure is it covers a really broad spectrum of thoughts and behaviours, both non-suicidal and suicidal, giving a nuanced picture of the person's current and lifetime self-injury ideation and behaviour. It also measures the frequency and intensity of self-injurious behaviours and thoughts.

Thanks, Olivia and Paramala for your updated information.I'll have a look at the instruments you suggested me.Gloriana