Linguistic Characteristics of Suicidal Patients in the Emergency Department

Linguistic Characteristics of Suicidal Patients in the ED (Emergency Department)

The purpose of this study is to determine whether patients who have a high risk for serious suicide behavior will demonstrate a speech pattern that has a relationship to language patterns found in suicide notes.

In an average week the CCHMC Emergency Department (ED) evaluates 40 patients with suicidal behavior. Currently, there is no systematic method for assessment of suicide risk in these patients and often, emergency department staff are required to make judgments about the disposition of these patients without a full understanding of the patient's risk for another serious suicide attempt. This pilot project involves experts in child psychiatry, biomedical informatics, and emergency medicine to collect pilot data for developing a method to estimate the risk of serious suicidal behavior based on computational linguistics.

Inclusion Criteria for Suicidal Subjects:

• Subjects age 13 years 0 months to 17 years, 11 months old
• Admission to CCHMC ED, psychiatric units, or medical units with suicidal behavior or attempt
• The patient and legal guardian must understand the nature of the study and be able to comply with protocol requirements. The legal guardian must give written informed consent and the youth, written assent.
• English is spoken as the primary language in the home

Inclusion Criteria for Non-Suicidal Subjects:

• Subjects age 13 years 0 months to 17 years, 11 months old
• Admission to CCHMC ED with no current or no history of suicide ideation/attempt/gesture
• No past or current history of a major mood disorder
• No history of death by suicide in first-degree relatives
• The patient and legal guardian must understand the nature of the study and be able to comply with protocol requirements. The legal guardian must give written informed consent and the youth, written assent.
• English is spoken as the primary language in the home

Exclusion Criteria for Suicidal Subjects:

• Any serious, unstable medical illness or clinically significant abnormal laboratory assessments that would adversely impact the scientific interpretability or unduly increase the risks of the protocol
• Level of consciousness precludes consent and research assessments
• Unable to assent because of severe mental retardation or incapacitating psychosis

Exclusion Criteria for Non-Suicidal Subjects:

• Any current or past suicide attempts
• Any serious, unstable medical illness or clinically significant abnormal laboratory assessments that would adversely impact the scientific interpretability or unduly increase the risks of the protocol.