New research highlights the importance of diagnosing depression
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Thursday is National Depression Screening Day and there's new research on the importance of diagnosing the mental health condition that can be life-saving.
This research is looking at the most effective ways to identify people considering suicide and how best to prevent it.
It's one of the leading causes of death in the U.S. More people died from suicide last year than any other year on record, according to provisional data.
"One of the key aspects of preventing suicide is being able to identify individuals who are most vulnerable to attempting suicide," Craig Bryan, a clinical psychologist at the Ohio State College of Medicine, said.
Researchers studying patient screening methods at primary care clinics thought traditional screening for suicidal thoughts would be most effective at identifying which patients were most likely to attempt suicide.
But that wasn't what they found.
"The key finding was that the most effective way to identify patients who would eventually attempt suicide was to screen them for depression," Bryan said.
The researchers found that screening for depression correctly identified more patients who would go on to attempt suicide than traditional suicide screenings.
"Primary care healthcare providers should really be focusing on identifying patients who have depression and that might serve as a gateway for determining who might need additional treatment in intervention and prevent suicide," Bryan said.
The research found more than half of people who died by suicide visited a primary care physician in the month prior to their death.
Calls to the new suicide crisis life-line , 988, have increased dramatically since it became available. Help is available 24-7
