Measuring implicit associations about suicide

Harvard University, Cambridge MA

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Suicide is among the leading causes of death worldwide and the World Health Organization and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services have highlighted the need for improved methods of identifying individuals at risk for suicide. Current methods for evaluating suicide risk rely almost exclusively on self report of suicidal thoughts and intent, which can provide biased or limited information as many suicidal individuals may deny self-injurious thoughts in order to avoid hospitalization or to facilitate discharge from hospital care. The long-term objective of the proposed line of research is the development of more objective and accurate methods of identifying those at risk for suicide. The primary goal of the research proposed in this application is to use methods from the social and cognitive sciences to develop and evaluate a clinical tool for assessing suicide risk. More specifically, the proposed research evaluates the usefulness of the Implicit Association Test (IAT), a computerized reaction-time task that evaluates individuals' automatic associations about different concepts, for examining implicit associations about suicide among individuals presenting to an emergency department at a major metropolitan hospital. The specific aims of this research are to (1) evaluate the validity of the suicide IAT by using it to assess implicit associations about suicide in a psychiatric emergency department setting among (a) individuals who have made a recent suicide attempt (N = 30), (b) individuals who report suicidal thoughts who have not made a suicide attempt (N = 30), and (c) individuals presenting to the emergency department who deny a recent suicide attempt or current suicidal thoughts (N = 30); (2) evaluate changes in implicit associations about suicide over the course of hospitalization; and (3) evaluate the ability of the implicit association measured in the hospital to predict suicidal thoughts and attempts over a six-month follow-up period. The results of this research have significant implications for research and clinical efforts related to suicide assessment.