Suicide Prevention, Part 1: Identifying and Predicting Risk, Vulnerable Populations, Public Perceptions, and Priority Settings

The topic of suicide prevention has long been a priority among mental health services researchers. A search of the key term “suicide prevention” in the Psychiatric Services archives yielded 445 articles since 1967, including 190 in the past 15 years alone. It also revealed a remarkable breadth of scholarship on a subject as complex as it is elusive; despite clinicians’ best efforts at prevention, suicide rates continue to rise year after year, and many experts fear this trend may be exacerbated by the stressors of the COVID-19 pandemic and resultant economic collapse.

In this two-part Editor’s Choice, we aim to represent this multifaceted body of work while acknowledging that this is just a sliver of the complete literature on the topic. Part 1 begins with research articles that explore tools for identifying people who may be at increased risk of suicide and for predicting which individuals may engage in self-harm. These tools include the nine-item Patient Health Questionnaire, psychiatric diagnosis, and self-report. Next, we look at populations particularly vulnerable to dying by suicide, including adolescents, college students, active duty soldiers, veterans, and older adults. Some of the most-read articles in Psychiatric Services are in the section on public perceptions of suicide. Finally, as demonstrated in the subsequent group of articles, many studies examine specific clinical settings for suicide prevention, such as outpatient mental health and primary care appointments, emergency department (ED) visits, and follow-up after discharge from inpatient psychiatric units.

Part 2 of this collection focuses on evidence-based practices, cost-effectiveness, and future directions in suicide prevention.