Pilot study: feasibility of using the Suicidal Ideation Questionnaire (SIQ) during acute suicidal crisis

BACKGROUND: Assessing youths in acute suicidal crisis is a common jet pivotal task in child and adolescent psychiatry, usually relying primarily on the clinicians skills of assessment. The objective of this pilot-study was to evaluate feasibility and usefulness of questionnaires during assessment of youths in acute suicidal crisis. METHOD: 31 adolescents, presenting for suicide assessment, and their caregivers, were asked upon emergency presentation to fill in the Suicidal-Ideation-Questionnaire (SIQ) and the Youth Life Status Questionnaire (Y-LSQ) before receiving an assessment by a clinician. The SIQ has 30 items, 8 of which are defined as critical items able to predict suicidality with the highest probability. The Y-LSQ (30 items) measures the overall level of psychological distress. It has one suicidal item, which was used in this study for validation of the SIQ result. Clinical judgment and test results were collected and analyzed by an independent researcher. RESULTS: It was feasible to ask adolescents in acute suicidal crisis to fill in a questionnaire. Clinical assessment of suicidality did not correlate significantly with the overall SIQ-score (p = 0.089), however there was a significant correlation between the SIQ 8 critical item result and clinical judgement of suicidality (p = 0.050). CONCLUSION: The 8 critical SIQ items can be used to support clinical judgment of suicidality in acute crisis.