Unfortunately, although many studies have identified risk factors for suicidal behaviors,1, 6–10 this information has not led to a reduction in the rate of suicide or suicidal behaviors.2, 11 Several obstacles have prevented the translation of these findings for use in clinical settings—a high priority for clinical science.12, 13 First, most prior studies have used relatively small and selective samples (e.g., college students, psychiatric inpatients) and have focused on long-term prediction (5–20 years) rather than short-term risk— raising questions about the generality and clinical utility of the identified risk factors. Second, most studies have identified risk factors for suicidal thoughts or attempts, but not what factors predict which suicide ideators will make a suicide attempt. This is an important concern for clinicians who often must predict not who in the general population will make a suicide attempt, but which of their clients with suicidal thoughts will make a suicide attempt in the coming days, weeks, or months. Third, many risk factors identified in prior studies cannot be feasibly assessed in clinical settings, such as diagnoses obtained from semi-structured interviews or
