According to the CDC, suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the US. Despite numerous attempts to refine the detection and prevention of suicidal behaviour (death by suicide and suicide attempts), either through better diagnostic methods or the integration of detection and early prevention services in settings such as primary care medicine, the rates of suicidal ideation and behaviour continue to climb. Longer-term risk factors for suicide have been intensively studied, with prediction being only slightly above chance within a recent meta-analysis.
Over 50 years of research has shown limited success in preventing suicide. Perhaps one of the reasons is a focus on identifying “who” is at risk but not “when” they are at the highest risk of self-harm. A potential solution to this problem is to develop methods for identifying warning signs through the use of personalized digital traces from internet searches.
