Suicide can't be predicted by asking about suicidal thoughts, major Australian study suggests

Context

The majority of people who die by suicide deny having suicidal thoughts when asked by doctors in the weeks and months leading up to their death, a study has found.

This questions a widely held belief that suicide can be accurately predicted by psychiatrists and clinicians by assessing a patient's risk, especially in the short-term.

What did they do?

The review of data from 70 major studies of suicidal thoughts shows that, as a stand-alone test, only 1.7% of people with suicidal ideas died by suicide. About 60% of people who died by suicide had denied having suicidal thoughts when asked by a psychiatrist or GP.

The study showed that 80% of patients who were not undergoing psychiatric treatment and who died of suicide reported not to have suicidal thoughts when asked by a GP.

Applying these results

Clinicians should not assume that patients experiencing mental distress without reporting suicidal ideas were not at elevated risk of suicide.

"Doctors sometimes rely on what is known as suicidal ideation - being preoccupied with thoughts and planning suicide - as a crucial test for short-term suicide risk, and it has been argued it could form part of a screening test for suicide," said the study's lead author, Dr Catherine McHugh. "Our results show that this is not in the best interests of patients.

The main message was that clinicians should give less weight to suicidal ideation than had been the case. "It means trying to better understand the patient's distress and not making patients wait weeks for treatment or denying treatment in the absence of suicidal thoughts."

There was also an important message for people bereaved of a loved one after a suicide, said Professor Large. "Even if they knew their relative was suicidal, the risk of death was low. And it was not their fault if they did not know someone was suicidal."

Source: https://www.eurekalert.org/pub...2/uons-scb020119.php