Universal Screening for Suicide Risk in a Pediatric Emergency Department

The Ask Suicide-Screening Questions (ASQ) is a rapid 4-item questionnaire that has been shown to identify suicide risk among pediatric patients presenting to the emergency department (ED) with behavioral or psychiatric problems. To test the screen in the general pediatric ED population, researchers conducted a retrospective cohort study in a single urban academic pediatric ED. The ASQ was administered selectively to patients 8–18 years old who presented with behavioral or psychiatric problems from 2013–2016 and universally to all patients 10–18 years old (and patients 8–18 years old with behavioral or psychiatric problems) from 2017–2018.

The analysis included 4666 patients in the selective group followed for a mean of 1134 days and 10,337 p…