IMAGiNE being asked questions like,"Have you ever had a period of 2 weeksor mdre when you had trouble failingasleep, staying asleep, waking up tooearly, or sleeping too much?"
'A similar set of questions pertainingto feelings of hopelessness, depressionand worthlessness of life form theSuicidal Ideation (Thoughts) ScreeningQuestionnaire (sis-Q). Developed byLisa Cooper-Patrick and colleagues atthe John's Hopkins Medical Institute inBaltimore, the sts-Q might help generalpractitioners to identify a person withsuicidal tendencies.
A suicidal patient may not necessarily appear depressed or suffering fromany psychiatric disorder when visiting adoctor. This questionnaire has beendevised to identify clinical traits sharedby individuals with suicidal ideation.
The sis-Q was formulated after researchers conducted a survey of morethan 6,000 individuals from the National Institute of Mental Health, USA.The findings, which appeared in therecent issue of Journal of AmericanMedical Association, were reported tohave identified 84 per cent of medicalpatients with suicidal tendencies.