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Comment
. 2017 May;210(5):369.
doi: 10.1192/bjp.210.5.369.

Overstating the lack of evidence on suicide risk assessment

Achim Wolf  1 , Seena Fazel  1
Affiliations
Comment

Overstating the lack of evidence on suicide risk assessment

Achim Wolf et al. Br J Psychiatry. 2017 May.

Abstract

Chan and colleagues provide an overview of risk factors and risk scales for suicide following self-harm (1). However, their conclusions go beyond their review findings and we think discounting the potential value of such tools on the basis of imperfect tools designed for other purposes is premature.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of interestA.W. is currently researching violence risk assessment. S.F. has published on violence risk assessment, including a tool (OxRec).

Comment on

References

    1. Chan MK, Bhatti H, Meader N, Stockton S, Evans J, O'Connor R, et al. Predicting suicide following self-harm: A systematic review of risk factors and risk scales. Br J Psychiatry. 2016 - PubMed
    1. Fazel S, Chang Z, Fanshawe T, Långström N, Lichtenstein P, Larsson H, et al. Prediction of violent reoffending on release from prison: derivation and external validation of a scalable tool. Lancet Psych. 2016;3(6):535–43. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Hawton K, Bergen H, Casey D, Simkin S, Palmer B, Cooper J, et al. Self-harm in England: a tale of three cities. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol. 2007;42(7):513–21. - PubMed
    1. Ægisdóttir S, White MJ, Spengler PM, Maugherman AS, Anderson LA, Cook RS, et al. The meta-analysis of clinical judgment project: Fifty-six years of accumulated research on clinical versus statistical prediction. Couns Psychol. 2006;34(3):341–82.