Instruments to assess suicide risk: a systematic review.

INTRODUCTION: Suicide is an issue of great severity in public health worldwide. This study aimed to investigate which instruments are most frequently used by healthcare professionals to assess suicide risk and how accessible such instruments are, as well as to determine the scope of suicide phenomena. METHOD: A systematic review was performed using the following Boolean searches: "scale AND suicide," "evaluation AND suicide," "questionnaire AND suicide." The articles retrieved were read and selected by two independent researchers - any discrepancies were addressed by a third researcher. RESULTS: From a total number of 206 articles, 20 instruments were identified as being currently used to assess suicide risk. The two most common were the Beck Scale for Suicide Ideation (BSI) and The Columbia - Suicide Severity Rating Scale (C-SSRS). CONCLUSION: Even though the two scales (BSI and C-SSRS) are the most frequently mentioned and used by healthcare professionals to assess suicide risk, both instruments present breaches in their structure and there is not yet a single instrument considered to be the gold standard. As a future perspective, there is the urgency of developing a new tool that can widely and completely assess all psychopathological aspects of suicidality.

Instruments to assess suicide risk: a systematic review

Abstract Introduction Suicide is an issue of great severity in public health worldwide. This study aimed to investigate which instruments are most frequently used by healthcare professionals to assess suicide risk and how accessible such instruments are, as well as to determine the scope of suicide phenomena. Method A systematic review was performed using the following Boolean searches: "scale AND suicide," "evaluation AND suicide," "questionnaire AND suicide." The articles retrieved were read and selected by two independent researchers - any discrepancies were addressed by a third researcher. Results From a total number of 206 articles, 20 instruments were identified as being currently used to assess suicide risk. The two most common were the Beck Scale for Suicide Ideation (BSI) and The Columbia - Suicide Severity Rating Scale (C-SSRS). Conclusion Even though the two scales (BSI and C-SSRS) are the most frequently mentioned and used by healthcare professionals to assess suicide risk, both instruments present breaches in their structure and there is not yet a single instrument considered to be the gold standard. As a future perspective, there is the urgency of developing a new tool that can widely and completely assess all psychopathological aspects of suicidality.

Resilience and coping strategies in cognitive behavioral group therapy for patients with panic disorder.

BACKGROUND: Although resilience and coping are important factors associated with mental health, they are rarely investigated in the treatment of patients with panic disorder (PD). OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the response to four resilience and coping strategy sessions added to the standard cognitive behavioral group therapy (CBGT) protocol for PD. DESIGN: Controlled clinical trial. METHODS: The control group (n = 50) attended 12 CBGT sessions, while the intervention group (n = 50) received four additional resilience and coping strategy sessions, i.e., 16 in total. Symptom severity, resilience, coping strategies, and quality of life were assessed at baseline and post-CBGT. RESULTS: Symptom severity and maladaptive coping strategies decreased significantly in both groups. However, the intervention group had increased resilience and improvement in the environment domain of quality of life. CONCLUSIONS: Additional sessions have potential benefits for coping skills and resilience in PD patients, but these benefits should be evaluated in further long-term studies.

Respiratory subtype of panic disorder: Can serum phosphate levels be a possible outcome to group cognitive-behavior therapy?

OBJECTIVE: Panic disorder (PD) respiratory subtype (RS) was described in order to cluster patients according to their symptoms. These patients are characterized by experiencing a relatively high number of noticeable respiratory symptoms during a panic attack (PA) and a higher reactivity to CO2. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the clinical relevance of this diagnostic category, evaluating if there are different responses to cognitive-behavioral therapy in patients with panic disorder RS as compared to those with the non-respiratory subtype (NRS), using serum phosphate as a biological marker. METHODS: Patients were assessed by a clinical interview followed by a structured diagnostic interview (M.I.N.I) and classified as RS or NRS based on symptoms. The severity of PD was evaluated throughout the PDSS, CGI, HAM-A, STAI and the BDI rating scales. All patients underwent 12 structured sessions of group-CBT for PD and had their blood collected at baseline and after treatment to assess phosphate levels. RESULTS: One hundred and thirty-eight patients have been assessed, and 102 were included in this trial. Sixty-nine patients completed the treatment protocol, 42 were classified as RS and 27 as NRS. Both RS and NRS patients improved in all clinical scales (p < 0.001). The mean phosphate levels increased from 2.44 mg/dl ±â€¯0.49 at baseline to 3.38 mg/dl ±â€¯0.52 (p < 0.01) in the RS group as well as from 2.46 mg/dl ±â€¯0.64 at baseline to 3.46 mg/dl ±â€¯0.61 (p < 0.01) in the NSR group. LIMITATIONS: Small sample size and the lack of assessment of other clinical and physiological parameters, such as respiratory variables. CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that both RS and NRS benefit from group CBT and that there was a change in phosphate levels after effective treatment in both groups. Our data support the idea that there is a reversal of the conditions that promote hypophosphatemia as chronic hyperventilation after CBT treatment, whereas it is in disagreement to the presence of two different PD subtypes based on phosphate levels once their rates did not differ at baseline and had a similar increase after effective treatment.