Self harm assessment using psychometric and clinical factors in the emergency department

• Author / Creator

  Randall, Jason

• The assessment of self harm risk is a common, difficult, and perplexing task for many physicians, especially those working in the emergency department (ED). A cohort study was conducted where 181 patients were enrolled in two EDs within the city of Edmonton. Initial interviews were conducted in the ED which collected basic demographics and medical history as well as psychometric measures. One of these measures was a novel method of assessing implicit cognitions of self harm and death. The occurrence of self harm behaviour was assessed 3 months after presentation. Regression analysis found a model, including a measure of implicit cognition, which was effective at predicting future self harm for most patients. Receiver operating characteristics of the final logistic regression model using two cut-points obtained a sensitivity of 96.6% and specificity of 53.9% for the low cut off and 58.6% and 96.2% for the high cut off.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Psychiatry
  • Emergency medicine
  • Risk assessement
  • Self injurious behaviours

• Graduation date

  Fall 2011

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Science

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R3TX44

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.