Grant: Doctoral Award - Frederick Banting and Charles Best Canada Graduate Scholarships

More Canadian adolescents die by suicide than all medical conditions combined. Suicide is implicated in a quarter of all adolescent deaths, yet our ability to predict and prevent suicide remains limited and underdeveloped. Research in our lab and by others has revealed that traditional risk factors for suicide (such as depression, psychiatric disorders, hopelessness, and even impulsivity) predict suicidal thoughts but not suicidal acts. This distinction is important since most individuals who think about suicide do not act on their thoughts. These findings indicate that other mechanisms facilitate the progression from suicidal thoughts to suicidal acts. Neurocognitive abilities (such as attention, memory, and decision-making) have been shown to mediate the relationship between thoughts and behaviours, and therefore might be implicated in the progression from suicidal thoughts to suicidal acts. Neuropsychological tests provide an objective, empirically validated method of assessing neurocognitive abilities, and therefore represent a powerful tool to examine the transition from suicidal thoughts to acts. Despite increasing understanding of brain-behaviour connections, few studies have applied neuropsychological assessment to adolescent suicide risk. The proposed research will investigate whether distinct patterns of neurocognitive impairment are uniquely associated with suicidal attempts in adolescents. Participants from a psychiatric inpatient unit at the Vancouver General Hospital will complete a comprehensive neuropsychological assessment battery alongside validated measures assessing history and severity of suicide attempts and ideation. This study will meaningfully enhance theoretical and clinical knowledge. Specifically, findings will improve our understanding about the mechanisms by which suicidal thoughts translate to suicidal actions, and thereby improve our ability to predict and prevent adolescent suicide attempts.