Real-Time Assessment of Suicidal Thoughts and Behaviors

Depression correlated with anxiety is one of the key factors leading to suicidal behavior, and is among the leading causes of death worldwide. Despite the scope and seriousness of suicidal thoughts and behaviors, we know surprisingly little about what suicidal thoughts look like in nature (e.g., How frequent, intense, and persistent are they among those who have them? What cognitive, affective/physiological, behavioral, and social factors trigger their occurrence?). The reason for this lack of information is that historically researchers have used retrospective self-report to measure suicidal thoughts, and have lacked the tools to measure them as they naturally occur. In this work we explore use of wearable devices and smartphones to identify behavioral, affective, and physiological predictors of suicidal thoughts and behaviors.