Scales in Suicide Risk Assessment

Introduction: Suicide and suicide attempts remain a challenge for the health system and especially for mental health system. Suicidal behaviors are a major problem due to the mortality and the co-morbidity that can be present. Although scales for recognizing suicidal behavior have been developed, some scales are not quite enough to predict suicidal behavior. Aim: The purpose of this study is to present the scales in suicide risk assessment. Material and Method: The current review examines the research findings from 39 empirical studies, which analyze the suicidal behavior and the scales in suicide risk assessment. The following inclusion criteria were used: (a) publications only in peer-reviewed journals, (b) original articles should be written in English, (c) provision of sufficient statistical and methodological information in order to allow replication. The research was conducted via data bases (PsycINFO, Expanded Academic, Web of Science, PubMed). The following key-words were used: "suicide", "suicide attempts" and "scales in suicide risk assessment". Results: Totally 16 scales in suicide risk assessment were recorded and 8 scales for suicide with their alpha Cronbach were presented. Suicide scales have been able to identify and classify the majority of major risk factors for suicide but there are still some suicide risk factors unidentified. Conclusion: Suicide scales are useful tools for suicidal behaviors assessment and it is beneficial to be used at the right time. However, in some cases the prediction of suicidal behavior may be uncertain.

Category: Volume 59, N 1
Hits: 16531 Hits
Created Date: 15-04-2020
Authors: Soultana Georgiadou , Konstantinos Pitsalidis