Center

By Sally Parker

When Arielle Sheftall, PhD, was 14, she lost her mother to cancer. Depression and anxiety took hold, and she started to experience thoughts of suicide.

In the end, her family got her the treatment she needed. Now, as an associate professor of Psychiatry in the School of Medicine and Dentistry, Sheftall understands there are many people facing similar moments in life, and she’s determined to change that, using her experience as a guide.

Sheftall is co-leading a five-year, $4.5 million research project funded by the National Institutes of Health to see if nerve-stimulating earbuds and a newly created peer support app can help reduce risk factors (such as depression) in teens to prevent suicidal thoughts from occurring.

The use of earbuds and a phone app is recognition that for hard-to-reach populations like teens, help must find those in need, not the other way around.

It’s just the latest example of innovative approaches that have kept Rochester at the forefront of suicide prevention and research for more than two decades. Sheftall works in the Center for the Study and Prevention of Suicide (CSPS), where faculty and postdoctoral fellows team up across disciplines to study the issue of suicide from all angles—psychiatric, psychological, social, cultural, and medical.

The work began in the late 1980s, when Eric Caine, MD, professor emeritus of Psychiatry in the School of Medicine and Dentistry, along with Yeates Conwell, MD, professor of Psychiatry in the School of Medicine and Dentistry, collaborated with the Monroe County Medical Examiner’s Office to study deaths of undetermined cause. At a time of growing interest in suicide research, they were among the first in the world to systematize what became known as the psychological autopsy. (See It Started with a Simple Call on page 32 )

Conwell, who is also vice chair of the Department of Psychiatry, soon founded the Laboratory for Suicide Studies. As colleagues in various disciplines joined, the research effort took shape as the CSPS in 1998. Kimberly Van Orden, PhD, associate professor of Psychiatry, and Peter Wyman, PhD, professor of Psychiatry, are current co-directors.

The center’s focus from the start has been the public health aspect of suicide, and it has earned an international reputation as a leader in the field. The CSPS has a long history of collaboration with suicide prevention researchers around the world.

All this has helped the CSPS lead research and interventions that cover the entire lifespan and reach more and more into diverse populations. The work is leveraging the latest tools such as digital health platforms and social networking, with real-world effects. Recently, a CSPS program to help stem a rise in the rate of suicide in the armed forces has begun rolling out to every U.S. Air Force base in the world. (See No One Left Behind on page 21.)

All told, the Center promises to make a difference in a tragic problem that remains near its peak, even as society only slowly changes to acknowledge it.

Addressing All Stages in Many Places

Roughly 132 people in the U.S. die by suicide each day—a rate of 13.42 per 100,000, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The rate hit a 20-year high in 2018, dipped for two years, but then spiked in 2021.

Traditional approaches focus on helping people who show warning signs. But as Caine points out, many people who attempt suicide are not