Adolescent Suicidality Clinical Trial
— SMMASHOfficial title:
Social Media Markers of Adolescents' Suicide Hazard
| NCT number | NCT02719275 |
| Other study ID # | H16-00524 |
| Secondary ID | |
| Status | Not yet recruiting |
| Phase | N/A |
| First received | March 21, 2016 |
| Last updated | March 21, 2016 |
| Start date | April 2016 |
Suicide is the 2nd leading cause of death for teenage youth in Canada, and every year tens
of thousands of young people engage in suicidal behaviors. Many young people manifest
red-flag behaviors in the digital realm before these incidents occur. The faceless nature of
online communication often emboldens youth to reveal details about their mental state:
leaving tell-tale signs or "bread crumbs" of their suicidal intentions or behaviors.
This research will examine the content of adolescents social media entries to find red flags
and detect patterns in social media interactions of adolescents that could be predictive of
subsequent suicide risk. The study participants will be patients admitted to Child and
Adolescent Psychiatry Emergency unit at BCCH, subdivided into two groups: those admitted due
to suicidal behaviors, and those admitted for non-suicidal behaviors. The text of social
media activity for the month prior to emergency admission of the two groups will be
collected, anonymized, and analyzed using text-analytic algorithms. The objective of the
study is to find patterns and indicators of social media entries, prior to admission, that
would have been predictive of suicidality.
The implications of successful outcome of this project for mental health care of children
and adolescents reaches well beyond the scope of this study. An objective method to predict
risk of suicidal behaviors in youth has application in almost all pediatric clinical
settings. The outcomes of this project will also serve as the foundation for further
utilization of social sensing technology to identify, predict, and prevent many other mental
health crises in children and adolescents.
| Status | Not yet recruiting |
| Enrollment | 200 |
| Est. completion date | |
| Est. primary completion date | April 2017 |
| Accepts healthy volunteers | No |
| Gender | Both |
| Age group | 12 Years to 17 Years |
| Eligibility |
Inclusion Criteria: - use social media - patient of BCCH Exclusion Criteria: - no use of social media |
Observational Model: Cohort, Time Perspective: Retrospective
| Country | Name | City | State |
|---|---|---|---|
| n/a | |||
| Lead Sponsor | Collaborator |
|---|---|
| Sinead Nugent |
| Type | Measure | Description | Time frame | Safety issue |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Primary | Algorithm development to predict suicidal crisis. | 10 months | No | |
| Secondary | Potential Predictors of crisis. | 10 months | No |