[Suicide risk assessment and suicide-specific syndromes]

Although more and more data is now available on the background of suicidal behaviour, classical suicidal risk factors have only limited clinical predictive value because they provide little reliable information on the acute psychological processes leading to suicidal behaviour. As the lack of recognition of acute suicidal risk limits the ability to provide adequate care, intense research has begun to develop validated methods for risk analysis and risk assessment that provide more accurate predictions of suicidal behaviour. In recent years, two specific syndromes have been described that may assist in the more accurate assessment of presuicidal psychopathology and thus in the prediction of suicidal behaviour. Researchers from the United States suggest the introduction and the clinical use of two suicide-specific syndromes, the Acute Suicidal Affective Disorder (ASAD) and Suicidal Crisis Syndrome (SCS). In this paper, we present the most important features of these newly described suicide-specific syndromes, the experience with their clinical application, and the major research findings about them. Then these syndromes are compared with the classical psychological features of pre-suicidal crisis to find out whether these are really new transdiagnostic interpretations of the symptoms of suicidal behaviour or those are merely the well-known classical symptoms with new terminology.