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Related Experiment Videos

The Schizophrenia Suicide Risk Scale (SSRS): development and initial validation.

T Taiminen1, J Huttunen, H Heilä

  • 1Department of Psychiatry, University of Turku Central Hospital, Rak. 9, III krs., TKS, Kunnallissairaalantie 20, FIN-20700 Turku, Finland. tero.taiminen@utu.fi

Schizophrenia Research
|March 30, 2001
PubMed
Summary

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A new Schizophrenia Suicide Risk Scale (SSRS) helps identify schizophrenic patients at high risk for suicide. While useful clinically, it may not be a practical screening tool due to limitations in sensitivity and specificity.

Area of Science:

  • Psychiatry
  • Clinical Psychology
  • Epidemiology

Background:

  • Lifetime suicide risk in schizophrenia is estimated between 4-10%.
  • No specific suicide risk scale currently exists for schizophrenic patients.
  • This study addresses the need for a clinically useful tool to assess short-term suicide risk in this population.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To develop a semi-structured scale for estimating short-term suicide risk in schizophrenic patients.
  • To conduct an initial validation of the developed scale.

Main Methods:

  • A 25-item Schizophrenia Suicide Risk Scale (SSRS) was created based on existing literature.
  • SSRS scores from living patients were compared to those of deceased patients from a national psychological autopsy study.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Logistic regression identified key predictors of suicide, and scale performance was evaluated using sensitivity, specificity, and predictive values.

    • Main Results:

    • Key predictors of suicide included communicated suicide plans, prior attempts, job loss, observed depression, and interview-based plans.
    • High cut-off scores yielded satisfactory specificity but low sensitivity (<32%).
    • The scale showed low internal consistency for anamnestic factors but high consistency for interview-based factors (depression-anxiety, irritability).

    Conclusions:

    • The SSRS can be clinically valuable for identifying schizophrenic patients at particularly high suicide risk.
    • The scale is likely not a practical screening instrument for suicide risk in schizophrenia.
    • Developing a suicide risk scale with both high sensitivity and specificity for schizophrenia may be unfeasible.