Is Screening for Suicidal Risk and Hazardous Drinking Possible in a Level 1 Trauma Center?

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate if screening for suicide risk and hazardous drinking was possible at a Level 1 trauma center. 107 trauma patients were screened using the Risk for Suicide Questionnaire (RSQ) and Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test (AUDIT). Three questions from the AUDIT were compared to the full 10 question AUDIT to assess the use of a rapid screening tool to detect alcohol misuse among trauma patients. Results showed that the RSQ identified one case of deliberate self-injury and 3 cases with recurrent thoughts of suicide. Correlation between the AUDIT and AUDIT-3 was 0.904, (p<0.01). On the AUDIT, the cutoff score that identified hazardous drinking based on criteria of a positive risk for suicide was 1 with a sensitivity of 75.0% and specificity of 64.2%. Likewise, the AUDIT-3 cutoff scores that identified hazardous drinking was 1 with the same sensitivity of 75.0% but a higher specificity of 75.5%. A Receiver Operator Characteristic curve of the AUDIT-3 compared to the full AUDIT showed the areas under the curve of 0.56 and 0.55, respectively (p=0.97). This study demonstrated that rapid screening for suicide risk and hazardous drinking was possible at a Level 1 trauma center.