Linguistic Characteristics of Suicidal Patients in the Emergency Department

Linguistic Characteristics of Suicidal Patients in the ED (Emergency Department)

The purpose of this study is to determine whether patients who have a high risk for serious suicide behavior will demonstrate a speech pattern that has a relationship to language patterns found in suicide notes.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Suicide
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: Standardized questionnaires and a ubiquitous questionnaire

Detailed Description

In an average week the CCHMC Emergency Department (ED) evaluates 40 patients with suicidal behavior. Currently, there is no systematic method for assessment of suicide risk in these patients and often, emergency department staff are required to make judgments about the disposition of these patients without a full understanding of the patient's risk for another serious suicide attempt. This pilot project involves experts in child psychiatry, biomedical informatics, and emergency medicine to collect pilot data for developing a method to estimate the risk of serious suicidal behavior based on computational linguistics.

• Study Type: Observational
• Enrollment (Actual): 60

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Ohio
    • Cincinnati, Ohio, United States, 45229
      • Cincinnati Children's Hopsital Medical Center

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 13 years to 17 years (CHILD)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

• Sampling Method: Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

CCHMC suicidal and non-suicidal adolescents

Description

Inclusion Criteria for Suicidal Subjects:

• Subjects age 13 years 0 months to 17 years, 11 months old
• Admission to CCHMC ED, psychiatric units, or medical units with suicidal behavior or attempt
• The patient and legal guardian must understand the nature of the study and be able to comply with protocol requirements. The legal guardian must give written informed consent and the youth, written assent.
• English is spoken as the primary language in the home

Inclusion Criteria for Non-Suicidal Subjects:

• Subjects age 13 years 0 months to 17 years, 11 months old
• Admission to CCHMC ED with no current or no history of suicide ideation/attempt/gesture
• No past or current history of a major mood disorder
• No history of death by suicide in first-degree relatives
• The patient and legal guardian must understand the nature of the study and be able to comply with protocol requirements. The legal guardian must give written informed consent and the youth, written assent.
• English is spoken as the primary language in the home

Exclusion Criteria for Suicidal Subjects:

• Any serious, unstable medical illness or clinically significant abnormal laboratory assessments that would adversely impact the scientific interpretability or unduly increase the risks of the protocol
• Level of consciousness precludes consent and research assessments
• Unable to assent because of severe mental retardation or incapacitating psychosis

Exclusion Criteria for Non-Suicidal Subjects:

• Any current or past suicide attempts
• Any serious, unstable medical illness or clinically significant abnormal laboratory assessments that would adversely impact the scientific interpretability or unduly increase the risks of the protocol.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Number of groups / cohorts

2

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort	Intervention / Treatment
Suicidal Subjects	Other: Standardized questionnaires and a ubiquitous questionnaire; Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale, Suicidal Ideation Questionnaire,Peabody Caregiver Background Form,CCHMC Suicide History Form,and ubiquitous questionnaire(UQ ver.2011)
Non-Suicidal Control Subjects	Other: Standardized questionnaires and a ubiquitous questionnaire; Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale, Suicidal Ideation Questionnaire,Peabody Caregiver Background Form,CCHMC Suicide History Form,and ubiquitous questionnaire(UQ ver.2011)

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Time Frame
Differences between questionnaire responses from adolescents with and without suicidal behavior	At time of questinnaire administration

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: John Pestian, PhD, Cincinnati Childrens Hospital Medical Center

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: September 1, 2009
• Primary Completion (ACTUAL): November 1, 2011
• Study Completion (ACTUAL): July 1, 2014

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: April 30, 2012
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: May 7, 2012
• First Posted (ESTIMATE): May 8, 2012

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (ACTUAL): February 15, 2017
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: February 13, 2017
• Last Verified: February 1, 2017

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Behavioral Symptoms; Pathologic Processes; Disease Attributes; Self-Injurious Behavior; Emergencies; Suicide
• Other Study ID Numbers: 2008-1421

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO
• IPD Plan Description: There is no plan to make individual participant data available.

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No