Scientizing and routinizing the assessment of suicidality in outpatient practice

Suicidal patients are difficult and challenging clinical problems. Conceptu al tools aid the clinician in organizing and evaluating the clinical situat ion. The authors provide a framework for suicide risk assessment that empha sizes 2 domains-history of past attempt and the nature of current suicidal symptoms-that have emerged in suicide research as crucial variables. These domains, when combined with other categories of risk factors, produce a cat egorization of risk for the individual patient, leading, in rum, to relativ ely routinized clinical decision making and activity.