The principal goals of this study are: 1) to examine whether students who showed evidence of risk for suicide while in high school remain at-risk in late adolescence and early adulthood, the age at which suicide has its highest incidence; 2) to determine whether adding a diagnostic assessment to a self-completion screening form significantly improves predictions of lasting psychopathology/risk status; 3) to provide information on the natural history of non-referred teens with self-identified suicidal behavior in high school. Procedure: 645 subjects, aged between 15-22 will be recalled approximately 4 years after they completed a brief self-completion screening form at high school. They are a subset of 2,004 who were screened and received a diagnostic assessment on the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children (DISC). Eight-three of those who will be followed-up admitted to a previous suicide attempt; 141 ideated about suicide but never attempted; 100 showed no suicidal behavior but were deemed at-risk by having either a mood or substance abuse disorder and 321 (controls) had neither mood, substance abuse nor suicidal symptoms. After aggressive subject tracking, subjects will be interviewed to assess current psychiatric status; interval history of suicidal ideation and behavior; psychosocial impairment and previous treatment experience. Significant: Most young people who commit suicide, one of the major health problems facing American adolescents and young adults, bear a set of treatable risk factors. These are most often either a mood disorder and/or substance/alcohol abuse, often in association with a prior history of suicidal behavior. These can be readily identified by inexpensive screening methods that could conveniently be carried out in a high school setting. However, the peak incidence of suicide is in late adolescence and early adulthood, after the high school years. The results of this study could indicate the extent to which suicidal risk identified in a high school setting where screening can be easily carried out was also effective in identifying later risk. Findings from the study will also provide an indication of optimal screening method.
