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Background: Suicidal behavior is increasing among US youths. Contact with the health care system is common in the months before suicide., Objective: To assess the characteristics of suicide risk among youths presenting for health care, universal screening results from a large hospital system were analyzed., Methods: A retrospective analysis of the Ask Suicide-Screening Questions tool administered to patients aged 10-17 years in a hospital system including an emergency department, inpatient medical units, and primary care clinics was conducted. Demographic and clinical data from 3 years of encounters were analyzed., Results: The sample consisted of 91,580 pediatric encounters, predominantly white Hispanic and women, with one third speaking Spanish. Across health care settings, 2.9% of encounters produced positive suicide risk screens, with the highest rate in the emergency department (8.5%). Acute positive screens, indicating imminent risk for suicidal behavior, accounted for 0.3% of all encounters. Approximately one-fourth (27.6%) of encounters for psychiatric presenting problems screened positive compared with 2.3% for nonpsychiatric encounters. Higher rates of positive screens were present among encounters for psychiatric presenting problems across all settings. Positive screens were less common among preteen (1.8%) than adolescent (3.1%) encounters (χ 2  = 65.50, P < 0.001)., Conclusions: Universal screening detected suicide risk in approximately 3% of pediatric health care encounters. Screening identified risk in encounters among preteen and adolescent patients, with a higher prevalence of positive screens in encounters for youths presenting with psychiatric problems and for emergency department visits. Acute positive screens were rare, occurring in less than half of 1 percent of encounters., (Copyright © 2020 Academy of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry. All rights reserved.)

Introduction: Self-inflicted burn (SIB) injuries are relatively rare, but patients may experience complex biopsychosocial challenges. This study aimed to compare long-term physical and psychological outcomes for individuals with SIB and non-SIB injuries., Methods: Records of adult SIB (n = 125) and non-SIB (n = 3604) injuries were collected from U.S. burn centers within the Burn Model System between 1993 and 2018. Assessments were administered at discharge, 6 months, 24 months, 5 years, and 10 years., Results: SIB patients were more often younger, unmarried, unemployed, male, struggling with pre-morbid psychiatric issues, and injured by fire/flame (all p < 0.001). SIB injury predicted prolonged mechanical ventilation, hospitalization, and rehabilitation (all p < 0.001). After injury, SIB patients had increased anxiety at 24 months (p = 0.0294), increased suicidal ideation at 5 years (p = 0.004), and clinically worse depression at 10 years (p = 0.0695). SIB patients had increased mortality across 24 months compared to non-SIB patients (OR = 4.706, p = 0.010)., Conclusion: SIB injuries are associated with worse physical and psychological outcomes compared to non-SIB injuries including complicated hospitalizations and chronic problems with anxiety, depression, suicidality, and mortality, even when controlling for common indicators of severity such as burn size. This underscores the importance of multidisciplinary treatment, including mental healthcare, and long-term follow-up for SIB patients. Identified pre-morbid risk factors indicate the need for targeted injury prevention., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Ltd and ISBI. All rights reserved.)

Objectives: The objective of the study was to describe the prevalence of recent suicidal ideation and behavior in adult patients admitted to a tertiary epilepsy monitoring unit (EMU) and to assess the difference between patients with epileptic seizures, psychogenic nonepileptic spells (PNES), and other inpatient populations., Results: Over the 14-month period, 316 patients were included in the study. One hundred and seventy-nine (57%) were classified as having epilepsy (ES), 116 (37%) with PNES, and 21 (7%) with comorbid ES and PNES (ES/PNES). Overall, 25 patients (8%) were screened positive for suicide risk factors (recent suicidal ideation and/or suicidal behavior). Patients admitted to the EMU had double the risk of suicide ideation and behavior when compared with other inpatient populations. There was no significant difference in the risk of suicidal ideation and behavior among patients with ES, PNES, and comorbid ES/PNES. Patients with comorbid ES/PNES had the highest risk (14%), although this did not reach statistical significance. Across all groups, patients with any comorbid psychiatric disorder had increased rates of suicidal ideation and behavior (11% vs 5%, p = 0.04)., Conclusions: The rate of suicidal ideation and behavior in this sample of EMU patients was higher compared with other inpatient populations. The presence of a psychiatric disorder was independently associated with a higher risk. There was no statistically significant difference in the risk between those with ES and PNES. Screening for suicide risk, suicidal ideation, and behavior is recommended for all patients admitted to the EMU., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: Suicide risk assessments are often challenging for clinicians, and therefore, biological markers are warranted as guiding tools in these assessments. Suicidal patients display increased cytokine levels in peripheral blood, although the composite inflammatory profile in the subjects is still unknown. It is also not yet established whether certain inflammatory changes are specific to suicidal subjects. To address this, we measured 45 immunobiological factors in peripheral blood and identified the biological profiles associated with cross-diagnostic suicide risk and depression, respectively., Methods: Sixty-six women with mood and anxiety disorders underwent computerized adaptive testing for mental health, assessing depression and suicide risk. Weighted correlation network analysis was used to uncover system level associations between suicide risk, depression, and the immunobiological factors in plasma. Secondary regression models were used to establish the sensitivity of the results to potential confounders, including age, body mass index (BMI), treatment and symptoms of depression and anxiety., Results: The biological profile of patients assessed to be at increased suicide risk differed from that associated with depression. At the system level, a biological cluster containing increased levels of interleukin-6, lymphocytes, monocytes, white blood cell count and polymorphonuclear leukocyte count significantly impacted suicide risk, with the latter two inferring the strongest influence. The cytokine interleukin-8 was independently and negatively associated with increased suicide risk. The results remained after adjusting for confounders., Limitations: This study is cross-sectional and not designed to prove causality., Discussion: A unique immunobiological profile was linked to increased suicide risk. The profile was different from that observed in patients with depressive symptoms, and indicates that granulocyte mediated biological mechanisms could be activated in patients at risk for suicide., (Copyright © 2019. Published by Elsevier B.V.)