Citation

Plutchik R, van Praag HM, Conte HR, Picard S. Compr. Psychiatry 1989; 30(4): 296-302.

Affiliation

Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1989, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

2758804

Abstract

A measure of suicide risk was developed using items reported to discriminate suicidal patients from controls in various studies. The new self-report scale was administered to 82 outpatients, 157 inpatients, and 83 college students. Using total scores, significant differences were found between the college sample and the two patient samples. The scale also discriminated between patients who reported one or more past suicide attempts and those who reported none. An independent cross-validation showed that half of the items continued to discriminate between patient and control groups. Sensitivity and specificity estimates were also determined. The test does not attempt to predict a specific rare event, i.e., suicide. It attempts to describe the degree to which a given individual reveals a set of characteristics that are similar to a suicide prototype.

Language: en