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Primary care assessment of patients at risk for suicide
Valerie Bono1, Christine Lazaros Amendola
1Valerie Bono has been practicing inpatient medicine (internal medicine, general surgery with subspecialties, psychiatry and emergency medicine) for the past 15 years in New York City. She now practices outpatient medicine in Brooklyn and prepares physician assistant students for the national certification examination and physician assistants for the recertification examination. Before becoming a PA, she worked as a mental health counselor for 10 years. Christine Lazaros Amendola is associate director of the Bronx Sexual Assault Response Team at North Central Bronx Hospital, Jacobi Medical Center, and Lincoln Medical and Mental Health Center, and an assistant clinical professor in the PA program at Pace University/Lenox Hill Hospital, all in New York City. She also practices emergency medicine at Jacobi Hospital. The authors have disclosed no potential conflicts of interest, financial or otherwise.
Abstract:
Primary care providers (PCPs) play a crucial role caring for patients with depression, managing antidepressant therapy, and assessing patients for suicide risk. Ten percent of the more than 20 million primary care visits for depression each year involve mental health issues, and account for 62% of the antidepressants prescribed in the United States. Psychiatric disorders appear to be underrecognized and undertreated in primary care. Suicidal ideation is present in a significant percentage of depressed primary care patients but rarely discussed. This article describes the warning signs and risk factors associated with suicide and recommends screening tools that can help PCPs identify patients at risk.
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