Evidence map›Paper›PMID 32063248›Full record

ArticlePsychological medicine2021

Natural language processing of clinical mental health notes may add predictive value to existing suicide risk models.

Maxwell Levis, Christine Leonard Westgate, Jiang Gui, Bradley V Watts, Brian Shiner

Open access · greenAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Psychological medicine, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 43 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
43citing papers in PubMed, 3 pooled it
11.4field-weighted citation impact, top 1% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

43 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 89 citations in OpenAlex.

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  6. Life events extraction from healthcare notes for veteran acute suicide risk prediction.Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA · 2026
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.

Maxwell LevisWhite River Junction VA Medical Center, White River Junction, VT, USA.ORCID 0000-0003-3271-6997
Christine Leonard WestgateWhite River Junction VA Medical Center, White River Junction, VT, USA.
Jiang GuiGeisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Hanover, NH, USA.
Bradley V WattsGeisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Hanover, NH, USA.
Brian ShinerWhite River Junction VA Medical Center, White River Junction, VT, USA.
Dartmouth College · USWhite River Junction VA Medical Center · US

Funding

Improving Care for PTSDIK2HX000854 · VA · WHITE RIVER JUNCTION VA MEDICAL CENTER · PI SHINER, BRIAN · 2020 to 2020
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HSRD VA CDA 11-263HSRD VA IK2 HX000854
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundThis study evaluated whether natural language processing (NLP) of psychotherapy note text provides additional accuracy over and above currently used suicide prediction models.

methodsWe used a cohort of Veterans Health Administration (VHA) users diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) between 2004-2013. Using a case-control design, cases (those that died by suicide during the year following diagnosis) were matched to controls (those that remained alive). After selecting conditional matches based on having shared mental health providers, we chose controls using a 5:1 nearest-neighbor propensity match based on the VHA's structured Electronic Medical Records (EMR)-based suicide prediction model. For cases, psychotherapist notes were collected from diagnosis until death. For controls, psychotherapist notes were collected from diagnosis until matched case's date of death. After ensuring similar numbers of notes, the final sample included 246 cases and 986 controls. Notes were analyzed using Sentiment Analysis and Cognition Engine, a Python-based NLP package. The output was evaluated using machine-learning algorithms. The area under the curve (AUC) was calculated to determine models' predictive accuracy.

resultsNLP derived variables offered small but significant predictive improvement (AUC = 0.58) for patients that had longer treatment duration. A small sample size limited predictive accuracy.

conclusionsStudy identifies a novel method for measuring suicide risk over time and potentially categorizing patient subgroups with distinct risk sensitivities. Findings suggest leveraging NLP derived variables from psychotherapy notes offers an additional predictive value over and above the VHA's state-of-the-art structured EMR-based suicide prediction model. Replication with a larger non-PTSD specific sample is required.

Indexed as

Natural Language ProcessingSuicide PreventionAlgorithmsElectronic Health RecordsHumansMachine LearningMental HealthElectronic medical recordsnatural language processingsuicide predictionveterans mental health

Identifiers

PMID32063248
PMCPMC8920410
OpenAlexW3008864515

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceTDM
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.