Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale (C-SSRS)
Psychology: Mental HealthReliability: established psychometric performance in clinical samples3 sample items
About this scale
A clinician-administered scale assessing suicidal ideation severity, ideation intensity, suicidal behaviour, and lethality. Mandatory in many FDA clinical trials.
Sample item(s)
“Have you wished you were dead or wished you could go to sleep and not wake up?”
“Have you actually had any thoughts of killing yourself?”
“Have you been thinking about how you might do this?”
Reliability
Reported internal consistency: established psychometric performance in clinical samples. As a rule of thumb, Cronbach’s α ≥ .70 is considered acceptable, ≥ .80 good, and ≥ .90 excellent for established measures.
Notes
Free for academic use; standard tool in suicide-risk research and clinical trials.
Source & citation
Posner, K., Brown, G. K., Stanley, B., Brent, D. A., Yershova, K. V., Oquendo, M. A., Currier, G. W., Melvin, G. A., Greenhill, L., Shen, S., & Mann, J. J. (2011): The Columbia–Suicide Severity Rating Scale: Initial validity and internal consistency findings from three multisite studies. American Journal of Psychiatry, Vol. 168, No. 12, pp. 1266–1277.
Source. Scale details are summarised from the publication cited above. Always consult the original source for the full item set, scoring, and permission to use.
Use it in your research
Need to check the reliability or psychometrics of this scale in your own data? Use the free DrAIStudio research tools:
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