EMED Logic© Discovers "Equation for Youth Suicide Lethality"

PENSACOLA, Fla., July 13, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- EMED Logic©, Inc., announces today a breakthrough evidence-informed equation to assist in the recognition of impending youth suicide. Russell Copelan, MD, founder of the company and a retired emergency room adolescent psychiatrist, will reveal the finding on MedPage Today this week. The innovation builds upon his earlier suicide-homicide final common pathway highlighted in the American Journal of Emergency Medicine, 2006 (ACUTE©). Recent sorrowful and dreadful events further emphasize this works timeliness.

According to Dr. Copelan, "We examined the likelihood of acute suicide attempts in young people without a recognized prior mental disorder or preceding ideation. The specific study group included those resuscitated or rescued from near-lethal attempts that followed actual or threatened humiliation. We knew from our data that this particular sample, often without traditional 'red flags or warning signs,' carried twelve times the risk of death compared to youth without this particular starting point."

Upon regaining consciousness, young patients were able to recall detailed pre-suicide perceptions. For example, one female adolescent stated, "It had me by the hair and wouldn't let go." Another said, "I was being led to my own execution." Lifesaving first steps include suspecting 'anaphylactic suicide' in a young person showing abrupt changes in thinking or behavior, especially at night. A second step consists of using a systematized, structured algorithm to detect and record subtle neurologic features.

Dr. Copelan's team has been preoccupied with providing clinicians and schools a clean rule to measure this extreme transition state. The method includes easy-to-administer brief neurologic tests to confirm immediate danger. He stresses: "These cases, without planning, move to deadliness rapidly, often within minutes to a few short hours." Its toll is estimated to be as high as 95 percent in up to 30 per hundred youth suicide cases. The violent reaction may develop swiftly following a family, bullying, disciplinary, or intimate partner problem.

"The early identification of these neurologic biomarkers is an upgrading of the standard mental status examination." Dr. Copelan underscores that the test is not a substitute for clinical judgment, but an important addition to it. "We hope that at long last the 'Equation for Suicidal Lethality' will help clinicians save lives starting with their next patient."

About EMED Logic©, Inc., aka EMED International: 501(c)3 organization dedicated to the development of and training in equitable, evidence-informed suicide and violence assessments. (www.emedtoday.org; https://www.medpagetoday.com/opinion/suicide-watch; Tel: 9702104504).

Media Contact:
Russell Copelan, MD
9702104504
[email protected] 

SOURCE EMED Logic©, Inc.