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CompletedNCT00623493Updated Jun 1, 2018

Detecting Risk of Suicide in a Pediatric Emergency Department

An observational study in Adolescents, Mental Disorder Diagnosed in Childhood and Suicide Prevention, sponsored by National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). Completed at 3 sites in United States. Open to participants aged 10 Years to 21 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2018-06-01.

Sponsored by National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) · Observational

Study type
Observational
Time perspective
Prospective
Enrollment
524
Ages
10 Years to 21 Years
Sex
All
01

Study summary

Objective:

The ultimate goal of this project is to enhance the capacity of non-mental health clinicians working in an Emergency Departments (ED) to recognize and initiate further evaluation of children and adolescents at risk for suicide.

Aim 1: To re-validate the Risk of Suicide Questionnaire (RSQ), a screening tool that assists non-psychiatric clinicians in rapidly detecting suicide risk in pediatric patients, in a pediatric ED mental health population in the Children s National Medical Center (CNMC) ED.

Aim 2: To determine the utility of a suicide screening tool, a revised version of the Risk of Suicide Questionnaire, to detect suicide risk in pediatric patients presenting to the CNMC ED for non-mental health reasons.

Study population:

The study population includes all patients admitted to the CNMC Emergency Department, ages 10 to 21, during the data collection weeks of the study period. Both patients admitted for mental health and non-mental health reasons will be included in the study.

Design:

This will be a prospective instrument development /validation study. During a designated study week, all mental health patients and a random subset of non-mental health patients admitted to the CNMC ED will be approached after their triage assessment. Following informed consent and assent, a 17-item suicide assessment tool created for this research project (RSQ-Revised), as well as a brief background questionnaire will be administered. These questions will be validated against a gold standard suicide assessment questionnaire, which will be administered to the subjects directly after the RSQ-Revised. The study aims to develop a brief suicide screening tool to be used at triage for all patients entering the ED.

Measures

Measures include the proposed 17-item screening questionnaire and a gold standard assessment of suicidal ideation in adolescents, the Suicide Ideation Questionnaire (SIQ).

Read the detailed description

Objective:

The ultimate goal of this project is to enhance the capacity of non-mental health clinicians working in an Emergency Department (ED) to recognize and initiate further evaluation of children and adolescents at risk for suicide.

  • Aim 1: To re-validate the Risk of Suicide Questionnaire (RSQ), a screening tool that assists non-psychiatric clinicians in rapidly detecting suicide risk in pediatric patients, in a pediatric ED mental health population.
  • Aim 2: To determine the utility of a suicide screening tool, a revised version of the Risk of Suicide Questionnaire, to detect suicide risk in pediatric patients presenting to a pediatric ED for non-mental health reasons.

Study population:

This is a multi-site study and will include all patients admitted to three pediatric EDs (the Children s National Medical Center (CNMC) ED, Children s Hospital Boston (CHB) ED, and Nationwide Children s Hospital (NCH) ED), ages 10 to 21, during the data collection days of the study period. Both patients admitted for mental health and non-mental health reasons will be included in the study.

For ease of reading, from here on in, the three pediatric EDs participating in this multi-site study will be referred to as the PEDIATRIC ED.

Design:

This will be a prospective instrument development / validation study. During 5 to 10 weekdays of the month, all mental health patients and a random subset of non-mental health patients admitted to the PEDIATRIC ED will be approached after their triage assessment. Following informed consent and assent, a 17-item suicide assessment tool created for this research project (RSQ-Revised), as well as a brief background questionnaire will be administered. These questions will be validated against a gold standard suicide assessment questionnaire, which will be administered to the subjects directly after the RSQ-Revised. The study aims to develop a brief suicide screening tool to be used at triage for all patients entering the ED.

Measures

Measures include the proposed 17-item screening questionnaire and a gold standard assessment of suicidal ideation in adolescents, the Suicide Ideation Questionnaire (SIQ).

02

Conditions studied

  • Adolescents
  • Mental Disorder Diagnosed in Childhood
  • Suicide Prevention

Keywords

  • Screening
  • Suicide
  • Emergency Department
  • Children and Adolescents
  • Suicide Risk
03

In context

Emergencies

1,692 studies on the registry are indexed under Emergencies; 333 are open to participants now.

This study's enrollment of 524 is above the median of 353 across 714 observational studies indexed under Emergencies.

Browse Emergencies studies →

Lead sponsor

National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) is the lead sponsor of 359 studies on the registry; 46 are open to participants now.

Of its 25 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 24 (96%) have results posted.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
10 Years to 21 Years
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

Inclusion criteria

Patient must complete triage assessment at the PEDIATRIC ED.

For the medical patients, triage level must be 2, 3, 4 or 5, and the patient must be medically stable. For medical patients in triage level 2, in order to determine if the patient is medically stable, the interviewer will contact the ED clinician (nurse or physician) prior to approaching the patient. Any patient deemed medically unstable will not be included in the study. For the psychiatric patients, leveling is not conducted in the same way. Therefore, triage level will not be considered an exclusion factor.

Triage level in the PEDIATRIC EDs is defined by the Emergency Severity Index (ESI). ESI is a five-level ED triage algorithm that uses acuity and resource needs to stratify patients into five clinically relevant groups from 1 (most urgent) to 5 (least urgent) (Gilboy, 2005).

Age: 10-21 years.

English speaking

A legal guardian must provide informed consent and patient must sign an assent document.

Exclusion criteria

EXCLUSION CRITERIA:

Developmental disability, severe cognitive impairment or communication disorder such that patient will not be able to comprehend the questions or communicate their answers

Triage level of 1 (for medical patients), indicating that the patient is not medically stable

Patient is not present with a legal guardian who can provide informed consent

Patient is non-English speaking (unfortunately, the SIQ is not available at this time in Spanish or any other languages)

05

Study design

Time perspective
Prospective
Enrollment
524 participants (actual)
06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Positive score on suicide assessment

07

Study locations

3 sites
  • Childrens National Medical Center
    Washington, District of Columbia, United States
  • Childrens Hospital, Boston
    Boston, Massachusetts 02115, United States
  • Nationwide Children's Hospital
    Columbus, Ohio, United States
08

References and documents

Publications

  • Bancroft J, Hawton K, Simkin S, Kingston B, Cumming C, Whitwell D. The reasons people give for taking overdoses: a further inquiry. Br J Med Psychol. 1979 Dec;52(4):353-65. doi: 10.1111/j.2044-8341.1979.tb02536.x. PubMed 508651 ↗
  • Baumeister RF. Suicide as escape from self. Psychol Rev. 1990 Jan;97(1):90-113. doi: 10.1037/0033-295x.97.1.90. PubMed 2408091 ↗
  • Bearman PS, Moody J. Suicide and friendships among American adolescents. Am J Public Health. 2004 Jan;94(1):89-95. doi: 10.2105/ajph.94.1.89. PubMed 14713704 ↗
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Updates

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Jun 1, 2018, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
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Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT00623493
Lead sponsor
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Responsible party
Sponsor
First posted
Feb 26, 2008
Start date
Feb 7, 2008
Completion
May 30, 2018
Last update
Jun 1, 2018

Study contacts

Lisa M Horowitz, Ph.D.
principal investigator · National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

Not currently enrolling

This study is completed, as verified in May 2018. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

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