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NIMH funds study on smartphones for suicide risk assessment

The NIMH recently granted $2.9 million to researchers from Care New England’s Butler Hospital, Brown University and the University of Michigan to study smartphone technology for suicide risk screening.

“We are very pleased to welcome this first test of our app outside of Michigan and in a patient population with diverse diagnoses,” Melvin McInnis, MD, of the University of Michigan, said in a press release.

The 5-year grant will enable researchers to assess utility of the smartphone app Predicting Individual Outcomes for Rapid Intervention (PRIORI) to determine suicide risk.

Initially, the study cohort will include individuals with bipolar disorder receiving psychiatric inpatient care.

Associations between changes in speech patterns and changes in suicide risk will be assessed.

“It is our hope that results of this study will have implications for both prevention and early intervention of suicide, and that the smartphone technology will provide methods for monitoring patients' suicide risk over time,” study researcher Heather Schatten, PhD, of Butler Hospital and the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, said in the release.

Study recruitment begins in February 2017.