ArticleThe Journal of adolescent health : official publication of the Society for Adolescent Medicine2021
Screening Pediatric Medical Patients for Suicide Risk: Is Depression Screening Enough?
Article in The Journal of adolescent health : official publication of the Society for Adolescent Medicine, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 34 papers.
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Who cites it
34 citing papers in PubMed, 73 citations in OpenAlex.
- Adolescent Suicide Risk Screening: A Secondary Analysis of the SHIELD Randomized Clinical Trial.The Journal of pediatrics · 2022Trial
- Barriers to and Facilitators of Implementing Suicide Risk Screening in Pediatric Primary Care: A Qualitative Study.Academic pediatrics · 2026Article
- Trends in Adolescent Depression and Suicide Risk Screening and Symptom Monitoring in a Large Primary Care Network.Academic pediatrics · 2026Article
- Asking Preadolescents About Suicide Is Not Associated With Increased Suicidal Thoughts.Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry · 2026Article
- Chronicity of Suicidality: Youth Suicide Prevention in Primary Care.Journal of psychosocial nursing and mental health services · 2026Article
- Integration of Measurement-Based Care for Youth Depression and Suicidality Using VitalSignChild psychiatry and human development · 2025Article
- Masculinity and Afrocentric Worldview: Assessing Risk and Protective Factors of Self-Reliance and Ubuntu on Young Black Men's Suicide Ideation.Journal of racial and ethnic health disparities · 2025Article
- Review
- Mental pain and lifetime suicide attempts in early adolescence: a preliminary study.Child and adolescent psychiatry and mental health · 2025Article
- Suicide Risk Screening in a Diverse Cohort of Youth With Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes.Pediatric diabetes · 2025Article
- Review
- Evidence-Based Youth Suicide Prevention and Intervention in Pediatric Primary Care Settings.Pediatric clinics of North America · 2024Review
- Emotional and Behavioral Problem Profiles of Preteens With Self-Injurious Thoughts and Behaviors: A Multicultural Study.Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry · 2024Article
- Anxiety and depression symptoms in adolescents and young adults with juvenile idiopathic arthritis: results of an outpatient screening.Arthritis research & therapy · 2024Observational
- Suicide in young people: screening, risk assessment, and intervention.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2023Review
- Screening and Assessing Suicide Risk in Medical Settings: Feasible Strategies for Early Detection.Focus (American Psychiatric Publishing) · 2023Article
- Suicide Preventive Interventions and Knowledge.Focus (American Psychiatric Publishing) · 2023Article
- Screening and Assessment of Suicidal Behavior in Transition-Age Youth with Foster Care Involvement.Child & adolescent social work journal : C & A · 2023Article
- A Comparison of Depressive Symptom Presentation in Adolescent Type 1 Diabetes and Pediatric Primary Care Samples.Pediatric diabetes · 2023Article
- Integrated behavioral health services in pediatric primary care and emergency department utilization for suicide risk.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2023Article
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Authors and funding
9 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
purposeMedically ill youth are at increased risk for suicide. For convenience, hospitals may screen for suicide risk using depression screening instruments, though this practice might not be adequate to detect those at risk for suicide. This study aims to determine whether depression screening can detect suicide risk in pediatric medical inpatients who screen positive on suicide-specific measures.
methodsA convenience sample of medical inpatients ages 10-21 years were recruited as part of a larger instrument validation study. Participants completed the Ask Suicide-Screening Questions, the Suicidal Ideation Questionnaire/Suicidal Ideation Questionnaire-Junior, and the Patient Health Questionnaire-Adolescent Version (PHQ-A). Univariate and multivariate statistics were calculated to examine the relationship between screening positive for depression and suicide risk.
resultsThe sample consisted of 600 medical inpatients (59.2% female; 55.2% white; mean age 15.2 ± 2.84 years). Of participants who screened positive for suicide risk (13.5%; 81/600), 39.5% (32/81) did not screen positive for depression, and more than half (45/81) did not endorse PHQ-A item 9, which queries for thoughts of harming oneself or being better off dead. Twenty-six participants (32%) who screened negative for depression and on PHQ-A item nine were at risk for suicide.
conclusionsIn this sample, depression screening alone failed to detect nearly a third of youth at risk for suicide. Although depression and suicide risk are strongly related, a significant portion of pediatric medical inpatients at risk for suicide may pass through the healthcare system unrecognized if depression screening is used as a proxy for identifying suicide risk.
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