A Sad Performance by the SADPERSONS Scale

To evaluate the performance of the SADPERSONS Scale for predicting whether self-harm patients would repeat self-harm, need hospitalization, or need referral for psychiatric care, researchers administered the scale to 126 consecutive self-harm patients presenting to a general hospital emergency department in the U.K.

Of these patients, 25% repeated self-harm within 6 months, 4% were admitted to the hospital, and 55% were referred for psychiatric aftercare. While the scale was more than 90% specific for all three outcomes, sensitivity was very low, ranging from 2.0% (hospitalization) to 6.6% (repeated self-harm).