The focus of suicide research changes from traditional risk factors to acute warning signs. Patient self-reported suicidal ideation (SI) is not a reliable measure of acute suicide risk. Presuicidal syndromes such as suicide crisis syndrome (SCS) attempt to describe measurable syndromes based on warning signs other than SI.

Seven hundred and ten acutely admitted patients were included in the study. Identification of symptoms describing the five components of SCS was done by performing a retrospective text analysis of the patient records (electronic medical records). Patients were grouped according to high or low level of SCS symptoms. We performed statistical tests for group differences in demographics, traditional risk factors, and clinical variables, including agitation assessed by the Positive and Negative Symptom Scale-Excited Component (PANSS-EC).

Seventy-two patients had high levels of SCS symptoms. They reported less SI the last month before admission; suicidality was less relevant for referral, the intake suicide assessment more often concluded with high suicide risk, they were more often referred and admitted involuntarily, and they had higher total scores on PANSS-EC.

The individual SCS symptoms may provide useful information in the evaluation of acute suicide risk at intake. A high level of SCS symptoms suggests more severe conditions. The lower reports among high-level than low-level SCS patients of self-reported SI last month before admission, shows the limitation of using SI as a warning sign. The association between the level of SCS symptoms and PANSS-EC total score suggests that agitation could give valuable additional information for suicide risk assessments.

Little is known about when youth may be at greatest risk for attempting suicide, which is critically important information for the parents, caregivers, and professionals who care for youth at risk. This study used adolescent and parent reports, and a case-crossover, within-subject design to identify 24-hour warning signs (WS) for suicide attempts.

Adolescents (N = 1094, ages 13 to 18) with one or more suicide risk factors were enrolled and invited to complete bi-weekly, 8–10 item text message surveys for 18 months. Adolescents who reported a suicide attempt (survey item) were invited to participate in an interview regarding their thoughts, feelings/emotions, and behaviors/events during the 24-hours prior to their attempt (case period) and a prior 24-hour period (control period). Their parents participated in an interview regarding the adolescents’ behaviors/events during these same periods. Adolescent or adolescent and parent interviews were completed for 105 adolescents (81.9% female; 66.7% White, 19.0% Black, 14.3% other).

Both parent and adolescent reports of suicidal communications and withdrawal from social and other activities differentiated case and control periods. Adolescent reports also identified feelings (self-hate, emotional pain, rush of feelings, lower levels of rage toward others), cognitions (suicidal rumination, perceived burdensomeness, anger/hostility), and serious conflict with parents as WS in multi-variable models.

This study identified 24-hour WS in the domains of cognitions, feelings, and behaviors/events, providing an evidence base for the dissemination of information about signs of proximal risk for adolescent suicide attempts.