Using the BSRS-5 to Screen for Suicide Ideation
Author Information
Author(s): Lung For-Wey, Lee Ming-Been
Primary Institution: Kaohsiung Armed Forces General Hospital
Hypothesis
Can the five-item Brief Symptom Rating Scale (BSRS-5) effectively screen for suicide ideation in different populations?
Conclusion
The BSRS-5 is an efficient tool for screening suicide ideation in psychiatric inpatients, general medical patients, and community residents.
Supporting Evidence
- The BSRS-5 showed good reliability and validity across different groups.
- Inferiority, hostility, and depression were significant predictors of suicide ideation in the psychiatric group.
- The optimal cut-off points for the BSRS-5 were determined for each group to effectively screen for suicide ideation.
Takeaway
The BSRS-5 is a quick questionnaire that helps doctors find out if someone might be thinking about suicide, and it works for different types of patients.
Methodology
Participants from psychiatric, community, and general medical settings completed the BSRS-5 questionnaire or a structured telephone interview.
Potential Biases
Potential bias due to different interview methods for community versus psychiatric and medical groups.
Limitations
The community group was interviewed by phone, which may have led to underreporting of suicide ideation compared to the other groups.
Participant Demographics
The study included 501 psychiatric participants, 1,040 community participants (47.8% male), and 969 general medical participants (61.1% male).
Statistical Information
P-Value
p<0.001
Confidence Interval
95% CI: 0.80-0.87
Statistical Significance
p<0.001
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
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