Construct development: The Suicide Trigger Scale (STS-2), a measure of a hypothesized suicide trigger state.

Area of Science:

• Psychiatry
• Psychometrics
• Clinical Psychology

Background:

• Developing a construct for the 'suicide trigger state' is crucial for understanding suicidal ideation.
• A novel psychometric self-report instrument, the STS-2, was utilized to explore this state.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate the construct of a 'suicide trigger state'.
• To assess the psychometric properties of the STS-2 instrument.

Main Methods:

• Administered the STS-2 to 141 adult psychiatric patients with suicidal ideation.
• Employed multiple statistical methods including factor analysis and ROC analysis to explore construct validity and structure.

Main Results:

• The STS-2 demonstrated excellent internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = 0.949).
• Factor analysis identified two components: near-psychotic somatization/ruminative flooding and frantic hopelessness.
• Optimal cut-off scores for predicting a history of suicide attempt were identified, with specific items related to ruminative flooding, doom, hopelessness, entrapment, and dread being significant.

Conclusions:

• The STS-2 appears to measure a distinct clinical entity, the 'suicide trigger state'.
• High scores on the STS-2 are associated with a history of past suicide attempts, suggesting clinical utility.