Test May Help Curb Suicide

NEW YORK Family doctors could detect potential suicides amongtheir patients with a simple four-question test, researchers saidTuesday.

The test asks about common signs of depression such as feelingsof guilt and hopelessness, depressed mood and sleep disturbance, thereport from Johns Hopkins University Hospital in Baltimore said.

"Some investigators have found that people who attempt tocommit suicide frequently consult their physicians before theirattempt or death," the report said. "In a majority of cases, thepatient's risk of suicidal behavior is not recognized." In theabsence of the questionnaire, surveys showed that family doctorsidentified and treated only about 25 percent of patients that came tothem with mental disorders.

Other screening tests have been devised to help diagnose mentalillness, but this is the first for use by family doctors, said Dr.Robert L. Spitzer, a psychiatrist at Columbia University in New Yorkand one of the test's developers.

Widespread adoption of the questionnaire could reduce thesuffering, disability and health care costs associated with mentalillness, Spitzer said.

"If general medical providers are to play an important role insuicide prevention, a strategy to efficiently identify high riskindividuals is needed," the report added.

The findings were based on a study of more than 6,000 peoplewho reported visiting a doctor for general medical care in the sixmonths before they were questioned.

There are about 30,000 suicides in the United States each year.

The report was published in this week's Journal of the AmericanMedical Association and released at a briefing held by theassociation in New York.

In a second study made public at the briefing, a researcher atBrown University said depression is a "major unnecessary publichealth problem" in the United States because of a "very wide gapbetween the effective available treatment . . . and the treatmentactually received."

Martin Killer said most victims in the United States are eithernot treated or receive only partial treatment, often because thestigma of mental illness forces many people to try to hide thedisease from family and colleagues.