@article{ref1,
title="Near term suicide risk assessment: a commentary on the clinical relevance of protective factors",
journal="Archives of suicide research",
year="2019",
author="Berman, Alan L. and Silverman, Morton M.",
volume="ePub",
number="ePub",
pages="1-11",
abstract="In this paper we examine the clinical relevance of protective factors to the assessment and formulation of near-term risk of death by suicide. Contrary to current clinical belief and practice we posit that there is no evidence-base to support these factors as mitigating or buffering risk for suicide for the individual patient, especially in the near-term assessment of that suicide risk. We show that evidence-based protective factors derive from population-based studies and, applicably, have relevance to public health promotion/primary prevention and are significant in informing treatment/secondary prevention; but lack evidence to support their often-proposed role in mitigating or buffering risk for suicide on an individual basis, especially when applied to the assessment of near-term risk of suicide. Accordingly, we argue for the need for empirical study of the role protective factors may or may not play in the formulation of a patient's risk for suicide and, in the interim, for clinical caution in assuming that protective factors have any significant buffering effect on a patient's level of near-term risk.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="1381-1118",
doi="10.1080/13811118.2019.1612804",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13811118.2019.1612804"
}