Successful Treatment of Suicidal Risk

Abstract. Background: In this article we focused on analyzing surveyed patient-generated responses based on two outcome questions derived from a suicide-specific framework called the Collaborative Assessment and Management of Suicidality (CAMS): Q1 – "Were there any aspects of your treatment that were particularly helpful to you? If so, please describe these. Be as specific as possible." Q2 – "What have you learned from your clinical care that could help you if you became suicidal in the future?" Aims: To develop a reliable coding system based on formerly suicidal patients' responses to two open-ended prompts and examine most frequently identified themes. Method: The present study utilized a consensual qualitative research process to examine responses of clinically resolved suicidal patients, based on the CAMS resolution criteria (i.e., three consecutive CAMS sessions reporting the effective management of suicidal risk), to two Suicide Status Form (SSF) outcome questions (n = 49 for Q1, and n = 52 for Q2). Results: Reliable coding systems were developed and used to determine major themes of successful patient responses. Conclusion: The results of this study provide insight into patients' experiences of a successful treatment for suicidal risk with larger implications for suicide-specific treatments in general. </jats:p

The Collaborative Assessment and Management of Suicidality with Suicidal Service Members

This chapter provides an overview of an evidence-based, suicide-specific, clinical approach called the Collaborative Assessment and Management of Suicidality (CAMS). CAMS has a robust evidence base from nonrandomized and randomized clinical trial research. CAMS is designed to form a strong therapeutic alliance and to increase patient motivation to be engaged in their own suicide-specific care. The Suicide Status Form is a multipurpose clinical assessment, treatment-planning, tracking, and outcome tool that provides the essential CAMS roadmap for engaging a suicidal patient in successful treatment. This chapter features the case example of “Jon,” a multiply-deployed suicidal US Army sergeant, to illustrate how CAMS can be used as both a philosophy suicide-specific care tool as well as a flexible clinical framework for engaging and effectively treating suicidal service members in military treatment facilities.</p

Social cognition and short-term prediction of suicidal ideation in schizophrenia

•Negative social cognitive biases, ratings of more extremely untrustworthy faces, and increased accuracy in recognizing negative affect were associated with suicidal ideation in schizophrenia.•Negative social cognitive bias was associated with the presence of suicidal ideation at two weeks follow up assessment.•Negative biases in processing and interpreting social information may foster suicidal thinking in schizophrenia. Despite recent research acknowledging social cognition as an important feature of interpersonal functioning in schizophrenia, little work has evaluated the role of social cognition in suicidal ideation and behavior in psychosis. In a short-term longitudinal study, we evaluated the association between concurrent and near term suicidal ideation with social cognition, including emotion recognition and related biases (ER-40; BLERT), attribution biases (AIHQ), and evaluations of trustworthiness (trustworthiness task) in a sample of 179 outpatients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder. Adjusting for severity of positive and general mental health symptoms, greater reactivity to extreme stimuli (trustworthiness measure), BLERT negative affect accuracy, and AIHQ Blame Scores were associated with suicidal ideation at baseline. AIHQ Blame Scores also longitudinally predicted the presence of ideation 2 weeks later and were highest among participants with ideation across the two time points. The present findings provide support that biased interpretations, and, concurrently with ideation, reactivity and selective accuracy to negative stimuli, are associated with suicidal ideation in schizophrenia. Further understanding the role of social cognitive ability and biases on suicidal ideation could contribute to the understanding of social cognition as a treatment target in prevention of suicidal behavior in schizophrenia