Twenty Suicide Assessment Instruments: Evaluation and Recommendations

Twenty relatively new suicide assessment instruments can be grouped into the following categories: (a) clinician-rated suicide instruments, (b) self-rated suicide instruments, (c) self-rated buffers against suicide, (d) instruments focused on children and adolescents, and (e) special purpose scales. The present review describes these instruments, giving the potential clinician or researcher information about their psychometric properties, strengths, and weaknesses. They vary in length and the age group for which they are designed, but most are reliable and have some psychometric evidence of validity. Of the 20, most highly recommended are Beck's Scale for Suicide Ideation series, Linehan's Reasons for Living Inventory, and Cole's self-administered adaptation of Linehan's structured interview called the Suicidal Behaviors Questionnaire.