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Status Update on the Sheehan-Suicidality Tracking Scale (S-STS) 2014
David V Sheehan1, Jennifer M Giddens1, Ivan Sascha Sheehan1
1Dr. D. Sheehan is Distinguished University Health Professor Emeritus at the University of South Florida College of Medicine, Tampa, Florida; J. Giddens is the Co-founder of the Tampa Center for Research on Suicidality, Tampa, Florida; and Dr. I. S. Sheehan is Assistant Professor and Graduate Program Director, School of Public and International Affairs, University of Baltimore, Baltimore, Maryland.
Abstract:
There is a need for a choice of scales to evaluate the full range of suicidal phenomena. Such scales must be capable of use as both safety and efficacy outcome measures in research and in clinical settings. Central to the success in finding and developing effective anti-suicidal medications is having a sensitive suicidality scale that can detect an efficacy signal in conventional sample sizes used in clinical trials. The Sheehan-Suicidality Tracking Scale was developed for these purposes. This article provides a 2014 status update on the scale's progress, its use, and its properties. The authors review why and how the scale was developed; the scale structure, versions, and properties; the trials in which it was used; the time frames accommodated; its validation and reliability studies; its utility in screening and assessment; its utility in assessing treatment-emergent suicidal adverse events; its use as an efficacy outcome measure; its availability in self-rated and clinician-rated forms; the availability and linguistic validation of pediatric versions; linguistic validation in other languages; how it compares with global ratings of suicidality; and its possible utility and applications.