BACKGROUND: Oquendo and colleagues (Oquendo, Baca-García, Mann, & Giner, 2008; Oquendo & Currier, 2009) recommend that DSM-V emphasize suicide risk assessment on a sixth axis, thereby increasing regularity of suicide risk assessments. AIMS: We propose that evidence of nonredundancy with Axis V - Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) is one piece of data that can serve as a starting point for a line of research establishing incremental predictive utility for a separate suicide risk assessment in the DSM framework. METHODS: A standardized suicide risk assessment protocol, measures of depressive, anxious, and eating disordered symptomatology, as well as an index of comorbidity were administered to a sample of 412 adult outpatients. RESULTS: Our data indicate that data from standardized suicide risk assessments are associated with indices of symptomatology severity as well as comorbidity, controlling for GAF. CONCLUSIONS: These results support the nonredundancy of the assessments and suggest the utility of longitudinal investigations of the predictive utility of a sixth DSM axis in the assessment of suicide risk.
BACKGROUND: Oquendo and colleagues (Oquendo, Baca-García, Mann, & Giner, 2008; Oquendo & Currier, 2009) recommend that DSM-V emphasize suicide risk assessment on a sixth axis, thereby increasing regularity of suicide risk assessments. AIMS: We propose that evidence of nonredundancy with Axis V - Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) is one piece of data that can serve as a starting point for a line of research establishing incremental predictive utility for a separate suicide risk assessment in the DSM framework. METHODS: A standardized suicide risk assessment protocol, measures of depressive, anxious, and eating disordered symptomatology, as well as an index of comorbidity were administered to a sample of 412 adult outpatients. RESULTS: Our data indicate that data from standardized suicide risk assessments are associated with indices of symptomatology severity as well as comorbidity, controlling for GAF. CONCLUSIONS: These results support the nonredundancy of the assessments and suggest the utility of longitudinal investigations of the predictive utility of a sixth DSM axis in the assessment of suicide risk.