Short-term suicide risk after leaving a psychiatric hospital
Official title: Ecological Assessment of Proximal Risk Factors for Suicide During Care Transitions
Funded at Butler Hospital (Providence, Ri) · NIH-11235871 · Data updated 2026-11-12
This project will use brief interviews, phone sensors, and short daily surveys to monitor people hospitalized for suicidal thoughts or behavior and look for short-term changes that signal rising suicide risk.
Quick facts
| Grant type | R01 grant |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Butler Hospital (Providence, Ri) NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Providence, United States) |
| Project start | January 1, 2023 |
| Project end | October 31, 2027 |
| Funding year | 2026 |
| Award (this year) | $671,811 |
| NIH project number | 5R01MH128248-04 |
| Project ID | NIH-11235871 on NIH RePORTER |
Who could benefit from this research
✓Could help
Adults hospitalized for suicidal ideation or a recent suicide attempt who can use a smartphone and complete brief surveys are the ideal candidates.
✕Less likely to help
People who were not recently hospitalized for suicide risk, cannot use or carry a smartphone, or are unable to complete brief assessments may not be eligible or benefit from this project.
What this research studies
If you join, you will complete baseline clinical interviews, lab-based behavioral tasks, and questionnaires while in the hospital. During your stay and after discharge, you'll complete short prompts on your phone and allow passive phone sensors and sleep/activity monitoring to collect data. The team will follow you for weeks after leaving the hospital to see which moment-to-moment changes in mood, thinking, social activity, and sleep come before increases in suicidal thoughts or behavior. The goal is to learn patterns that could point to times when you might need extra support.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, this work could help catch rising suicide risk sooner so clinicians or support systems can intervene before a crisis.
How similar studies have gone: Related digital phenotyping studies have shown promising signals for mood and behavior changes but have not yet produced consistently reliable tools to predict suicide on their own.
Where this research is happening
-
Butler Hospital (Providence, Ri)
Providence, United States Active
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Armey, Michael F — Butler Hospital (Providence, Ri)
- Study coordinator: Armey, Michael F
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About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page.