The Columbia–Suicide Severity Rating Scale: Initial Validity and Internal Consistency Findings From Three Multisite Studies With Adolescents and Adults
Reports the initial psychometric validation of the Columbia–Suicide Severity Rating Scale (C-SSRS) across three multisite studies (N=673) of adolescent suicide attempters, depressed adolescents, and adults presenting in psychiatric crisis. Establishes the scale's validity and internal consistency for classifying the severity of suicidal ideation and behaviour along a defined ordinal ladder.
Publisher
American Journal of Psychiatry (American Psychiatric Association)
Published
1 Dec 2011
Added
3 months ago
Key Findings
- The C-SSRS showed good convergent and divergent validity against established suicidality measures.
- The ideation-intensity and behaviour subscales demonstrated high sensitivity and specificity for classifying suicidal behaviour.
- Baseline C-SSRS ratings were prospectively associated with suicide attempts during study follow-up.
Methodology Notes
Instrument-validation study across three multisite samples of adolescents and adults using clinician-administered ratings. Published December 2011 (Am J Psychiatry 168(12):1266–1277); exact day of month not stated — date precision is month. The journal DOI page returns HTTP 403 to automated fetchers; the primary link points to the free NIH PMC author-manuscript full text (PMC3893686), corroborated by PubMed 22193671 and Crossref DOI metadata.
Authors
Kelly Posner, Gregory K. Brown, Barbara Stanley, David A. Brent, Kseniya V. Yershova, Maria A. Oquendo, Glenn W. Currier, Glenn A. Melvin, Laurence Greenhill, Sa Shen, J. John Mann
Tags
Cite This
APA
Kelly Posner et al. (2011). The Columbia–Suicide Severity Rating Scale: Initial Validity and Internal Consistency Findings From Three Multisite Studies With Adolescents and Adults. American Journal of Psychiatry (American Psychiatric Association). https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3893686/
Related Insights
Evaluating Reasoning LLMs for Suicide Screening with the Columbia-Suicide Severity Rating Scale
arXiv · 11 May 2025
Evaluation of Alignment Between Large Language Models and Expert Clinicians in Suicide Risk Assessment
Psychiatric Services (American Psychiatric Association); RAND-led author team · 26 Aug 2025
Assessment of Suicidal Intention: The Scale for Suicide Ideation
Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology (American Psychological Association) · 1 Jan 1979
Evaluating Reasoning LLMs for Suicide Screening with the Columbia-Suicide Severity Rating Scale
IEEE (2025 IEEE International Conference on Future Machine Learning and Data Science, FMLDS) · 2 Nov 2025
Assessing Suicide Risk in Arabic Crisis Helpline Calls: A Comparison of Arabic and English Large Language Models
arXiv (Yale University; American University of Beirut; Embrace Mental Health Center, Beirut) · 31 Aug 2026
From Symptom Networks to Conversation Networks: A Cross-Sectional Study Mapping the Topology of Suicide-Related Clinical Dialogue
medRxiv (preprint); University Hospital Frankfurt; UKP Lab, Technical University of Darmstadt · 29 Sept 2026
Preparing AI chatbots to respond to patient distress and suicidality in high-risk healthcare settings
npj Digital Medicine (Nature Portfolio) · 22 Sept 2026
Development of a Consensus Statement to Guide AI Chatbot Responses to Suicide Risk Disclosure
PsyArXiv (Corporal Michael J. Crescenz VA Medical Center; University of Pennsylvania; Stanford; Columbia University and others) · 21 Jun 2026