The purpose of this study was to identify outpatients who experience entrenched suicidal ideation following inpatient psychiatric hospitalization. Our findings suggest that the use of a suicidal ambivalence index score was helpful at discriminating those who reported significantly greater ratings of suicidal ideation across a 1-year period of time, whereas splitting patients based upon suicide attempt history yielded nonsignificant results. Similar findings resulted from a dimensional analytic approach, as well. Application of the suicidal ambivalence index may help administrators identify patients who require more intensive clinical services to resolve their suicidal ideation.
© 2012 The American Association of Suicidology.