Screening for suicide risk in adults: a summary of the evidence for the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force

Suicide is the 11th leading cause of death and the seventh leading cause of years of potential life lost in the United States. Although suicide is of great public health significance, its clinical management is complicated.

The authors systematically reviewed the literature to determine whether screening for suicide risk in primary care settings decreases morbidity, mortality, or both.

MEDLINE (1966 to 17 October 2002), PsycINFO, Cochrane databases, hand-searched bibliographies, and experts.

For screening, only English-language studies performed in primary care settings were examined. For treatment, randomized, controlled trials and cohort studies were included if they were performed in any setting where suicide completions, suicide attempts, or suicidal ideation were reported.

A primary reviewer abstracted data on key variables of study sample, design, and outcomes; a second reviewer checked information accuracy against the original articles.

No study directly addressed whether screening for suicide in primary care reduces morbidity and mortality. The remainder of the review focused on the questions of reliable screening tests for suicide risk and the effectiveness of interventions to decrease depression, suicidal ideation, and suicide attempts or completion. One screening study provided limited evidence for the accuracy of suicide screening in a primary care setting. Intervention studies provided fair and mixed evidence that treating those at risk for suicide reduces the number of suicide attempts or completions. The evidence suggests mild to moderate improvement for interventions addressing intermediate outcomes such as suicidal ideation, decreased depressive severity, decreased hopelessness, or improved level of function.

Because of the complexity of studying the risk for suicide and the paucity of well-designed research studies, only limited evidence guides the primary care clinician's assessment and management of suicide risk.