Questions for Suicide Risk Assessment: There, Then and How to Measure?

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Abstract

Background. Diagnostics of suicide risk is an important, but only developing domain in suicidology. Objective. This study aims to clarify the problems and perspectives in this scientific field. The main issues related to measuring this construct are posed and analyzed: the setting, the object of measurement, and the specifics of the available tools. Results. The inference is made about the importance of these variables when choosing a method for measuring suicide risk, as well as the need to combine diagnostics and therapy. Conclusion.The typology for choosing the methods of intervention based on the Narrative Crisis Model of Suicide by I. Galynker is provided. The limitations of the modern diagnostic methods are indicated, the call to rely not so much on various diagnostic tools as on the structured clinical judgment, and also be guided not so much by the presence or absence of suicidal ideation in a respondent, but by understanding their current frustrated needs.

General Information

Keywords: suicide, suicide risk, suicidal process, setting, clinical judgment, diagnostic methods

Journal rubric: Research Reviews

Article type: review article

DOI: https://doi.org/10.17759/cpp.2023310201

Funding. A fragment of the work (literary review, analysis of the material, writing and editing the manuscript) was performed by K.A. Chistopolskaya within the framework of the State Task No. 121041300179-3: Development of static and dynamic prognostic markers of affective spectrum disorders and schizoaffective disorder based on clinical pathogenetic, neurobiological and psychopathological studies.

Received: 13.05.2023

Accepted:

For citation: Chistopolskaya K.A., Kolachev N.I., Enikolopov S.N. Questions for Suicide Risk Assessment: There, Then and How to Measure?. Konsul'tativnaya psikhologiya i psikhoterapiya = Counseling Psychology and Psychotherapy, 2023. Vol. 31, no. 2, pp. 9–32. DOI: 10.17759/cpp.2023310201. (In Russ., аbstr. in Engl.)

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Information About the Authors

Ksenia A. Chistopolskaya, Medical Psychologist, Psychiatric Department no. 2, Eramishantsev Moscow City Clinical Hospital, Junior Research Fellow, Moscow Research Institute of Psychiatry – a branch of V.P. Serbsky National Medical Research Center for Psychiatry and Narcology, Moscow, Russia, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2552-5009, e-mail: ktchist@gmail.com

Nikita I. Kolachev, PhD in Psychology, Senior Lecturer, Department of Psychology, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3214-6675, e-mail: nkolachev@hse.ru

Sergey N. Enikolopov, PhD in Psychology, Associate Professor, Head of Department of Clinical Psychology, Mental Health Research Center, Moscow, Russia, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7899-424X, e-mail: enikolopov@mail.ru

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