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9 - Use of Medications in Suicide Prevention

from Section 2 - Clinical Risk Assessment and Care

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 May 2021

Christine Yu Moutier
Affiliation:
The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention
Anthony R. Pisani
Affiliation:
University of Rochester Medical Center, New York
Stephen M. Stahl
Affiliation:
University of California, San Diego
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Summary

For which patients does this guidance apply? These principles should be applied in clinical decision making for a broader group of patients than just those with expressed suicidal ideation. Suicide risk includes any patients with elevated risk, many of whom do not present with a chief complaint of suicidal ideation. Their risk may be identified by a recent suicide attempt, or by a family history of suicide along with current psychosocial stressors, or the patient facing a life transition or loss along with deterioration in clinical status. (See Suicide Risk Assessment in Chapter 6). At the broadest level, current clinical standards (including those of The Joint Commission which is based in the USA but accredits health systems in the USA and internationally) consider all patients being treated in behavioral healthcare settings (psychiatric inpatient and outpatient care, psychological therapy, substances use disorder treatment, etc.) as having potentially elevated suicide risk.

Type
Chapter
Information
Suicide Prevention
Stahl's Handbooks
, pp. 149 - 170
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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