Objective: This study reports on the psychometric properties of a brief, self-administered screening questionnaire, the Columbia SuicideScreen® (CSS), intended to identify high school students at risk for suicide. Method: Seventeen hundred twenty-nine 9th-to 12th-grade students completed the CSS and Beck Depression Inventory during school hours in 1991 to 1994. Three hundred fifty-six students who screened positively and 285, group matched on age, gender, and ethnicity, who screened negatively were examined on the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children (DISC), version 2.3, to assess validity. The DISC-based suicide risk criterion was suicidal ideation or prior suicide attempt and a DSM-III-R diagnosis of major depression or dysthymia or substance use. Test-retest reliability was assessed in a subsample of 85. Results: The most balanced algorithm had a sensitivity of 0.75, specificity 0.83, and positive predictive value 16%. Suicidal ideation and prior attempt item reliabilities (κ) were 0.48 and 0.58, respectively. Eight-day test-retest reliability for the most balanced scoring algorithm was 0.32. Conclusions: The CSS demonstrated good sensitivity and reasonable specificity identifying students at risk for suicide. A second-stage evaluation would be needed to reduce the burden of low specificity.

Childhood sexual abuse was associated with earlier initiation of injection drug use. These data emphasize the need to integrate substance abuse prevention with postvictimization services for children and adolescents.

Cohort studies of young (aged 18-30 years) injecting drug users recruited in 1997-1999 in the Harlem and Lower East Side areas of New York City, New York, were used to assess the incidence of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis B virus (HBV), and hepatitis C virus (HCV). The authors found that HIV incidence was low at both sites: 0.8/100 person-years at the Harlem site and 0/100 person-years at the Lower East Side site. In contrast, HBV incidence was moderate (12.2/100 person-years) at the Harlem site and high (30.7/100 person-years) at the Lower East Side site. Similarly, HCV incidence was moderate (9.3/100 person-years) at the Harlem site and high (34.0/100 person-years) at the Lower East Side site. Results show that high rates of HBV and HCV transmission do not imply high rates of HIV transmission, even within an area of high HIV seroprevalence.