University of Minnesota researchers are searching for electrical signals in the brain that could provide earlier warnings about severe depression and suicidal impulses.
Doctors already use proven questionnaires to identify depression, but lack reliable tools to determine which patients are at risk for self-harm, said Dr. Alik Widge, a U psychiatrist who is leading the project — called Fast, Reliable Electrical Unconscious Detection, or FREUD.
"Our rate of predicting who is going to attempt suicide in the next three months is terrible," he said. "We're a little better than chance, but we're not nearly as good as we need to be."
Some patients might not recognize they are at risk, while others might not admit to suicidal impulses, even to therapists. Widge said the goal is to create a "lying-to-yourself detector" that identifies brain signals that are unique and common to people who are struggling with suicidal thoughts or psychosis.
The final product could be a hat that people wear in clinics to measure their responses to different images or statements on computer screens.
"The technology vision here is something that would be simple and unobtrusive," he said.
The study is funded by the Department of Defense, which wants to create a mental health version of the MRI — the imaging scan that detects soft-tissue damage before it results in disabling physical injuries. Suicides of soldiers and veterans since Sept. 11, 2001, have quadrupled deaths in post-9/11 military operations, underscoring the need.
Suicide has been a rising public health problem among civilians as well; a Minnesota Department of Health data brief showed an increase in suicides from 480 in 2001 to about 835 last year.
