This Project Grant award of $1,549,649.37 from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) under the Mental Health Research Grants program (CFDA 93.242) will support a multimodal assessment of social disconnection as a risk factor for suicide ideation in older adults. The key products and services to be delivered under this 4-year award, which begins on April 1, 2025, include: Conducting an intensive longitudinal study over 1 year with a diverse sample of 250 men and women aged 60 and older...
The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) awarded a $247,894 Project Grant (CFDA 93.242 - Mental Health Research Grants) to Emory University to develop advanced prediction models that integrate social factors, specifically loneliness and social isolation, into suicide risk assessment for older adults. The project aims to: 1) develop and validate a tool to identify linguistic markers of loneliness and social isolation in clinical notes, 2) integrate these insights into a suicide risk...
This Project Grant award of $640,196, provided by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) under the Mental Health Research Grants program (CFDA 93.242), supports a 4-year longitudinal study to investigate suicide risk and protective factors among economically disadvantaged, preteen Black youth. The study aims to: 1) characterize the severity and course of suicide ideation and behaviors (SIB) in a sample of 1,000 Black preadolescents; 2) identify individual, environmental, and...
This $2.9 million Defense Health Agency project grant funds research on suicide prevention among military personnel and veterans. The grant supports a multi-site randomized clinical trial through September 2026 to evaluate the efficacy of Written Exposure Therapy for Suicide Prevention compared to treatment as usual. Researchers at Boston University and partner institutions University of Colorado Denver and University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio aim to reduce suicidal thoughts and...
This $4.385 million project grant from the National Institutes of Health's National Institute on Aging will fund research into digital detection of social isolation and loneliness markers of risk for Alzheimer's disease. The University of California, San Diego will collect data from 128 cognitively normal older adults divided into high- and low-risk groups based on cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers and subtle cognitive decline markers. Researchers will administer in-lab standard measures as well as...
This Project Grant award from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), under the Mental Health Research Grants program (CFDA 93.242), provides $184,540 to the University of Southern California to conduct research aimed at reducing social isolation and loneliness among individuals with serious mental illness (SMI). The key objectives are to: 1) identify environmental features associated with activity engagement and social interaction, 2) examine associations between engagement,...
This federal Project Grant award from the National Institute on Aging (CFDA 93.866 - Aging Research) provides $869,192 to the University of Miami to conduct a mixed methods study examining the impact of parental bereavement on social connection, isolation, and health. The key goals of the study are to: 1) quantify changes in bereaved parents' social network characteristics, 2) determine associations between network characteristics, perceived isolation, and health, and 3) identify adaptive...
This Project Grant award from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), under the Mental Health Research Grants program (CFDA 93.242), supports a research study to investigate peripubertal social motivation as a novel risk factor linking childhood threat exposure and suicidal ideation and behavior in preteen girls. The $3,218,822 award to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will fund a longitudinal study to refine assessments, test theories on how maladaptive social...
The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) awarded a 5-year, $1,685,620 Project Grant (CFDA 93.242) to Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey to conduct a longitudinal study examining the "Social-Ecological and Individual Determinants of the Course of Suicidal Ideation & Attempt Among African Americans from Early Adolescence to Young Adulthood." The study aims to: 1) identify trajectories of suicidal ideation and behavior (SIB) across adolescence and young adulthood, 2)...
The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) awarded a Project Grant under the Mental Health Research Grants program (CFDA 93.242) to Rutgers, The State University. The $469,159 grant, with a start date of Sep 11, 2024 and an end date of Sep 10, 2026, will fund a research study examining the bidirectional relationships between positive and negative social media use and suicidal ideation among high-risk adolescents. The study will use intensive monitoring approaches, including smartphone...
PATHWAYS FROM SOCIAL DISCONNECTION TO SUICIDAL IDEATION IN LATER LIFE - ABSTRACT SUICIDE DEATHS AND SOCIAL DISCONNECTION AMONG OLDER ADULTS ARE INCREASINGLY SERIOUS PUBLIC HEALTH CONCERNS. A 'WISH TO DIE' (WTD) IS AN INDICATOR OF PASSIVE SUICIDE IDEATION WHICH REFERS TO THOUGHTS OF ONE'S OWN DEATH, THAT ONE WOULD BE BETTER OFF DEAD, OR WISHING FOR ONE'S DEATH. THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN SOCIAL DISCONNECTION AND SUICIDE IS WIDELY RECOGNISED AND SOCIAL DISCONNECTION HAS BEEN SHOWN TO BE ASSOCIATED WITH AN INCREASED LIKELIHOOD OF WTD. IMPORTANTLY, SOCIAL DISCONNECTION IS A MULTI-FACETED CONSTRUCT AND BOTH THE QUANTITY (SOCIAL ISOLATION) AND QUALITY (LONELINESS) OF PEOPLE'S SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS ARE STRONGLY RELATED TO BOTH SUICIDE IDEATION AND SUBSEQUENT SUICIDE ATTEMPTS. WHILE THIS ASSOCIATION IS WELL-ESTABLISHED, THE MECHANISTIC PATHWAYS TO EXPLAIN THE ASSOCIATION ARE LESS WELL UNDERSTOOD. THE MAIN PUTATIVE MECHANISMS PROPOSED ARE: BEHAVIORAL (SLEEP, PHYSICAL ACTIVITY, SMOKING, ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION), PSYCHOLOGICAL (DEPRESSION, ANXIETY, AND AGEING PERCEPTIONS), AND PHYSIOLOGICAL (NEUROENDOCRINE, IMMUNE FUNCTION, AND CARDIOMETABOLIC). THIS STUDY LEVERAGES DATA FROM THE IRISH LONGITUDINAL STUDY ON AGEING (TILDA) TO IDENTIFY THE PATHWAYS THAT EXPLAIN THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN SOCIAL DISCONNECTION AND PASSIVE SUICIDAL IDEATION. TILDA IS A LARGE, NATIONALLY REPRESENTATIVE, PROSPECTIVE COHORT STUDY THAT EXAMINES THE SOCIAL, ECONOMIC AND HEALTH CIRCUMSTANCES OF 8,500+ COMMUNITY-DWELLING ADULTS AGED 50 YEARS AND OLDER IN IRELAND. TILDA DATA HAVE BEEN COLLECTED EVERY TWO YEARS SINCE 2009 AND INCLUDES BOTH SURVEY DATA (CAPI AND SCQ) AND A COMPREHENSIVE CLINIC-BASED HEALTH ASSESSMENT. DETAILED BIOMARKER DATA ARE AVAILABLE FROM THESE HEALTH ASSESSMENTS AND INCLUDE MARKERS FROM THE NEUROENDOCRINE, IMMUNE, CARDIOMETABOLIC, AND PARASYMPATHETIC SYSTEMS. USING THIS LONGITUDINAL DATA, THE STUDY AIMS TO: (1) IDENTIFY WHO IS AT HIGHEST RISK OF SOCIAL DISCONNECTION AND WTD AMONG OLDER ADULTS AS WELL AS WHEN INDIVIDUALS ARE MOST AT RISK; (2) EXAMINE THE NATURE OF THE ASSOCIATIONS BETWEEN SOCIAL DISCONNECTION AND WTD, INCLUDING STRENGTH, TEMPORALITY, AND DIRECTIONALITY, AMONG OLDER ADULTS; (3) IDENTIFY MECHANISTIC PATHWAYS THAT EXPLAIN THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN SOCIAL DISCONNECTION AND WTD. TO ADDRESS THESE AIMS, FOUR WAVES OF SURVEY AND TWO WAVES OF BIOMARKER DATA WILL BE INVESTIGATED AND ADVANCED LONGITUDINAL STATISTICAL TECHNIQUES (GLMM, LATENT GROWTH CURVE, LATENT CLASS GROWTH ANALYSIS, AND SEM PATH ANALYSIS) WILL BE APPLIED. GIVEN THE COMPLEX NATURE OF THIS STUDY, WE HAVE ASSEMBLED AN OUTSTANDING MULTI-DISCIPLINARY TEAM OF CLINICAL AND ACADEMIC RESEARCHERS WITH EXPERTISE IN EACH OF THE CONSTITUENT PARTS OF THE PROJECT. BY ESTABLISHING THE CAUSAL PATHWAYS BETWEEN SOCIAL DISCONNECTION AND WTD, STUDY RESULTS WILL IDENTIFY IMPORTANT RISK AND PROTECTIVE FACTORS FOR SUICIDAL IDEATION THAT ARE AMENABLE TO INTERVENTION. IN DOING SO, THE STUDY WILL INFORM EFFECTIVE CLINICAL AND COMMUNITY-BASED INTERVENTIONS BY WHICH THE TRAIN OF THOUGHTS LEADING TO ACTIVE SUICIDAL IDEATION CAN BE STOPPED BEFORE INDIVIDUALS PROGRESS TO ACTIVE IDEATION AND SUICIDAL BEHAVIOR.