What is the Suicide Burden Relevant to Detecting/Predicting Risk?
Until specific biomarker tests or approaches that do not require self-reports are found, family members
and health professionals will need to continue to make judgments regarding near-term risk. The burden
related to inadequate detection of near-term risk could include cases seen in health care settings (e.g.,
EDs, primary care, specialty care) with “false negative” and “false positive” outcomes. The false negative
outcome is tragic. In terms of a system outcome, it may appear as a “sentinel event” for The Joint
Commission, or a “never event” under Medicare or Medicaid. If the outcome was a false positive event,
a person may be subject to unnecessary involuntary commitment to treatment, with significant social
and financial costs.