Cited by 210Suicide and Self-Harm StudiesMental Health Research TopicsMental Health via Writing

Digital phenotyping of suicidal thoughts

Open access
Kleiman, Evan M., Turner, Brianna J., Fedor, Szymon, Beale, Eleanor E., Picard, Rosalind W., Huffman, Jeff C., Nock, Matthew K.·2018·Depression and Anxiety

Abstract

BACKGROUND: To examine whether there are subtypes of suicidal thinking using real-time digital monitoring, which allows for the measurement of such thoughts with greater temporal granularity than ever before possible. METHODS: We used smartphone-based real-time monitoring to assess suicidal thoughts four times per day in two samples: Adults who attempted suicide in the past year recruited from online forums (n = 51 participants with a total of 2,889 responses, surveyed over 28 days; ages ranged from 18 to 38 years) and psychiatric inpatients with recent suicidal ideation or attempts (n = 32 participants with a total of 640 responses, surveyed over the duration of inpatient treatment [mean stay = 8.79 days], ages ranged 23-68 years). Latent profile analyses were used to identify distinct phenotypes of suicidal thinking based on the frequency, intensity, and variability of such thoughts. RESULTS: Across both samples, five distinct phenotypes of suicidal thinking emerged that differed primarily on the intensity and variability of suicidal thoughts. Participants whose profile was characterized by more severe, persistent suicidal thoughts (i.e., higher mean and lower variability around the mean) were most likely to have made a recent suicide attempt. CONCLUSIONS: Suicidal thinking has historically been studied as a homogeneous construct, but using newly available monitoring technology we discovered five profiles of suicidal thinking. Key questions for future research include how these phenotypes prospectively relate to future suicidal behaviors, and whether they represent remain stable or trait-like over longer periods.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1002/da.22730

Cites

28 of 29 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Research works printed but not linked: 4

  1. Dawkins, R. (1976). The selfish gene. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
  2. Muthén, L. K., & Muthén, B. O. (2014). Mplus user's guide (7th ed.). Los Ange- les, CA: Muthén & Muthén.
  3. Tinbergen, N. (1951). The study of instinct (Vol. xii). New York, NY: Clarendon Press/Oxford University Press.
  4. Wilson, E. O. (1978). On human nature (Revised ed.). Cambridge, MA: Har- vard University Press.

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Kleiman, E. M., Turner, B. J., Fedor, S., Beale, E. E., Picard, R. W., Huffman, J. C., & Nock, M. K.
Affiliations
  • Harvard University (US)
  • University of Victoria (CA)
  • MIT Media Lab (US)
Corresponding author
Kleiman, Evan M.
Venue
Depression and Anxiety
Publisher
Wiley
Published
2018-04-10
Volume
35
Issue
7
Pages
601-608
ISSN
1091-4269 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2855659753
Cited by
210
References
28
Citations by year
2026: 20 · 2025: 27 · 2024: 30 · 2023: 27 · 2022: 33 · 2021: 29 · 2020: 29 · 2019: 8 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 1
FWCI
21.11
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Depression and Anxiety (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard (DASH) (Harvard University) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
Funders
  • Chet and Will Griswold Suicide Prevention Fund
  • For the Love of Travis
  • Pershing Square Venture Fund for Research on the Foundations of Human Behavior
  • John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Suicide and Self-Harm Studies
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Mental Health Research Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Mental Health via Writing
Keywords
suicidal ideation, digital phenotyping, smartphone-based monitoring, suicide attempts, latent profiles, psychiatric inpatient care, suicide risk
MeSH terms
Smartphone, Ecological Momentary Assessment, Adolescent, Adult, Aged, Female, Humans, Inpatients, Male, Middle Aged, Outpatients, Phenotype, Psychiatric Department, Hospital, Surveys and Questionnaires, Suicide, Attempted, Young Adult, Suicidal Ideation

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review