Key result
Digital predictive biomarkers, including sleep vital signs and speech pattern recognition, show potential to augment traditional screening tools for more accurate, real-time identification of suicide risk in Veterans.
Why the study?
Veteran suicide risk screening is currently limited to hotlines, patient visits, and self- or family reporting, necessitating innovative methods like digital biomarkers to track behavioral risk factors more reliably.
Do digital predictive biomarkers improve the identification and prediction of suicide risk in Veterans compared to traditional screening tools?
Do digital predictive biomarkers improve the identification and prediction of suicide risk in Veterans compared to traditional screening tools?
Digital predictive biomarkers collected via smartphones and wearables offer a promising, continuous method to augment traditional screening tools for identifying suicide risk in Veterans.
May aid continuous suicide risk monitoring in Veterans; hypothesis-generating and requires prospective validation before clinical use.
Veteran suicide is one of the most complex and pressing health issues in the United States. According to the 2020 National Veteran Suicide Prevention Annual Report, since 2018 an average of 17.2 Veterans died by suicide each day. Veteran suicide risk screening is currently limited to suicide hotlines, patient reporting, patient visits, and family or friend reporting. As a result of these limitations, innovative approaches in suicide screening are increasingly garnering attention. An essential feature of these innovative methods includes better incorporation of risk factors that might indicate higher risk for tracking suicidal ideation based on personal behavior. Digital technologies create a means through which measuring these risk factors more reliably, with higher fidelity, and more frequently throughout daily life is possible, with the capacity to identify potentially telling behavior patterns. In this review, digital predictive biomarkers are discussed as they pertain to suicide risk, such as sleep vital signs, sleep disturbance, sleep quality, and speech pattern recognition. Various digital predictive biomarkers are reviewed and evaluated as well as their potential utility in predicting and diagnosing Veteran suicidal ideation in real time. In the future, these digital biomarkers could be combined to generate further suicide screening for diagnosis and severity assessments, allowing healthcare providers and healthcare teams to intervene more optimally.
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Holmgren et al. (2022) conducted a review in Veteran suicide risk. Digital predictive biomarkers vs. Traditional screening tools was evaluated. Digital predictive biomarkers, including sleep vital signs and speech pattern recognition, show potential to augment traditional screening tools for more accurate, real-time identification of suicide risk in Veterans.
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