Surveillance of Suicide Ideation in Adolescents (VISIA)

Launched by SERVICIO GALLEGO DE SALUD · Mar 26, 2024

Keywords

ClinConnect Summary

The VISIA study in Spain is an observational project that asks whether an artificial intelligence system can tell apart adolescents who currently have suicidal thoughts from two comparison groups (psychiatric patients without current suicidal thoughts and healthy students). Researchers will collect a mix of traditional questionnaires used to screen for mental health and novel data from several “multimodal” sources, including voice patterns, facial expressions, written text, and saliva samples to study proteins. The study includes three groups of 11–16-year-olds and follows participants for about a year to see if the AI can identify early signs of suicide risk from these combined data.

Eligible teens are 11 to 16 years old. The ideation group must currently have suicidal thoughts; the clinical population group must have no ideation in the past year; the general population group should have no psychiatric history or ideation. Exclusions include significant neurodevelopmental or speech disorders that affect communication. The study is enrolling by invitation at sites in Santiago de Compostela, Vigo, and Ourense (Spain), led by the University Hospital Complex of Ourense with partners from the Galician Health Service and universities. Participants will complete standard questionnaires (such as SDQ, MFQ, and others) and undergo a multimodal assessment that includes voice recording, video of facial expressions, autobiographical writing, and saliva collection, all within roughly a year. Data are not shared at the individual level, and there are no drugs or devices involved.

Gender

ALL

Eligibility criteria

• Inclusion Criteria:
• • Ideation Group
• • Participants must be between 11 and 16 years old.
• • Patients who do not meet any of the exclusion criteria and whose parents (both), guardians, or legal representatives accept their voluntary participation in the study. In case of divorce, authorization from both parents will be required.
• • Patients receive care in child and adolescent psychiatry or psychology services and currently have suicidal ideation.
• • Patients may have a previous follow-up, as long as they have suicidal ideation at the present moment, or they may be new consultations and may be receiving pharmacological treatment (which will be documented in the study).
• • Clinical Population Group
• • Participants must be between 11 and 16 years old.
• • Patients who do not meet any of the exclusion criteria and whose parents (both), guardians, or legal representatives accept their voluntary participation in the study. In case of divorce, authorization from both parents will be required.
• • Patients receive care in child and adolescent psychiatry or psychology services for any reason other than those listed as exclusion criteria.
• • Patients have not had suicidal ideation in the past year. Patients may have a previous follow-up or may be new consultations, and they may be receiving pharmacological treatment (which will be documented in the study).
• • General Population Group
• • Participants must be between 11 and 16 years old.
• • Students who do not meet any of the exclusion criteria and whose parents (both), guardians, or legal representatives accept their voluntary participation in the study. In case of divorce, authorization from both parents will be required.
• • Students must declare that they have not received psychiatric or psychological follow-up before, nor have they had suicidal ideation in the past year.
• Exclusion Criteria (applicable to all groups):
• * Neurodevelopmental disorders or speech disorders affecting verbal communication capacity, specifically including:
• • Autism Spectrum Disorder grades 2 and 3.
• • Communication disorders (selective mutism, language disorder, phonological disorder, childhood-onset fluency disorder, social communication disorder).
• • Individuals with hearing impairment and verbal language impairment.
• • Individuals with moderate and severe intellectual disabilities.
• • Individuals with psychotic disorders.