Columbia Screen Robustly Predicts Death by Suicide in Swedish ER’s with Imminent Risk Timeframe

The abbreviated Columbia (C-SSRS) Screener was evaluated in a just-published largest study of over 18K psychiatric emergency patients in Sweden (Bjureberg et al 2021 Psychological Medicine). The suicidal thoughts with methods or any intent to act on the C-SSRS Screener robustly predicted death by suicide over 1-week, 1-month and 1-year time periods. 67 patients who died by suicide had between double and almost 4-times the odds of dying by suicide. Similarly, positive answers to suicidal behavior question predicted suicide over short- and longer-term. The majority of high-risk answers resulted in immediate in-patient or follow-up psychiatric care.  In-patient psychiatric care was protective against suicide within 1-week of screening and admission but indicated higher risk for suicide within 1-month and 1-year follow up. Bjureberg 2021 – Columbia-suicide_severity_rating_scale_screen_version_initial_screening_for_suicide_risk_in_a_psychiatric_emergency_department