Suicide risk assessment: clinical implications of the unpredictability of suicidal behavior (opens in new tab)

Risk assessment in the context of suicidal ideation and behavior cannot be conducted with certainty. Recent meta-analyses demonstrate that neither individual risk factors, composite risk scores, clinical judgment, nor adherence to theoretical models or artificial intelligence enables sufficiently accurate prediction of suicidal behavior. This raises the question of how clinicians should respond to the well-documented limitations in the precision of risk assessment. This article first reviews ...