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Abstract
<p class="first" id="P1">Suicide is the second leading cause of death among young
adults but the challenges
of preventing suicide are significant because the signs often seem invisible. Research
has shown that clinicians are not able to reliably predict when someone is at greatest
risk. In this paper, we describe the design, collection, and analysis of text messages
from individuals with a history of suicidal thoughts and behaviors to build a model
to identify periods of suicidality (i.e., suicidal ideation and non-fatal suicide
attempts). By reconstructing the timeline of recent suicidal behaviors through a retrospective
clinical interview, this study utilizes a prospective research design to understand
if text communications can predict periods of suicidality versus depression. Identifying
subtle clues in communication indicating when someone is at heightened risk of a suicide
attempt may allow for more effective prevention of suicide.
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