Evidence map›Paper›PMID 34008338›Full record

ReviewWiley interdisciplinary reviews. Cognitive science2022

Search for solutions, learning, simulation, and choice processes in suicidal behavior.

Alexandre Y Dombrovski, Michael N Hallquist

Abstract readReview
In one paragraph

Review in Wiley interdisciplinary reviews. Cognitive science, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
18citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
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

18 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.

  1. Pooled it
  2. When Losses Matter More: A Dynamic Reference-Dependent Evaluation of Suicide Risk.Risk analysis : an official publication of the Society for Risk Analysis · 2026
    Article
  3. Article
  4. Article
  5. Article
  6. Article
  7. Review: Suicide and its relationship to aggression and impulsivity.Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience · 2025
    Review
  8. Article
  9. Review
  10. Article
  11. Article
  12. Article
  13. Review
  14. Negative affectivity and disinhibition as moderators of an interpersonal pathway to suicidal behavior in borderline personality disorder.Clinical psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science · 2022
    Article
  15. Article
  16. Search for solutions, learning, simulation, and choice processes in suicidal behavior.Wiley interdisciplinary reviews. Cognitive science · 2022
    Review
  17. Article
  18. A Computational Model of Hopelessness and Active-Escape Bias in Suicidality.Computational psychiatry (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2022
    Article
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

2 authors.

Alexandre Y DombrovskiDepartment of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2054-4772
Michael N HallquistDepartment of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA.

Funding

PSYCHOBIOLOGY OF SUICIDAL BEHAVIOR IN BPDR01MH048463 · NIMH · UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH AT PITTSBURGH · PI Alexandre Y. Dombrovski · 1992 to 2026
$13.9M
Reward Learning in Late-Life Suicidal BehaviorR01MH100095 · NIMH · UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH AT PITTSBURGH · PI Alexandre Y. Dombrovski · 2014 to 2026
$6.8M
Neurocomputational studies of mood-related momentum dynamics linking reward learning, valuation and responsivityR01MH124092 · NIMH · UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH AT PITTSBURGH · PI DOMBROVSKI, ALEXANDRE Y., ELDAR, ERAN PLAYFAIR · 2020 to 2024
$5.3M
NIMH NIH HHS R01 MH048463NIMH NIH HHS R01MH048463NIMH NIH HHS R01 MH100095NIMH NIH HHS R01MH100095NIMH NIH HHS R01 MH124092NIMH NIH HHS R01MH124092
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Suicide may be viewed as an unfortunate outcome of failures in decision processes. Such failures occur when the demands of a crisis exceed a person's capacity to (i) search for options, (ii) learn and simulate possible futures, and (iii) make advantageous value-based choices. Can individual-level decision deficits and biases drive the progression of the suicidal crisis? Our overview of the evidence on this question is informed by clinical theory and grounded in reinforcement learning and behavioral economics. Cohort and case-control studies provide strong evidence that limited cognitive capacity and particularly impaired cognitive control are associated with suicidal behavior, imposing cognitive constraints on decision-making. We conceptualize suicidal ideation as an element of impoverished consideration sets resulting from a search for solutions under cognitive constraints and mood-congruent Pavlovian influences, a view supported by mostly indirect evidence. More compelling is the evidence of impaired learning in people with a history of suicidal behavior. We speculate that an inability to simulate alternative futures using one's model of the world may undermine alternative solutions in a suicidal crisis. The hypothesis supported by the strongest evidence is that the selection of suicide over alternatives is facilitated by a choice process undermined by randomness. Case-control studies using gambling tasks, armed bandits, and delay discounting support this claim. Future experimental studies will need to uncover real-time dynamics of choice processes in suicidal people. In summary, the decision process framework sheds light on neurocognitive mechanisms that facilitate the progression of the suicidal crisis. This article is categorized under: Economics > Individual Decision-Making Psychology > Emotion and Motivation Psychology > Learning Neuroscience > Behavior.

Indexed as

GamblingSuicidal IdeationComputer SimulationDecision MakingHumansSuicide, Attemptedcognitiondecision-makingreinforcement learningsuicidevalue-based choice

Identifiers

PMID34008338
PMCPMC9285563

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY-NC
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.