The ETUDES Center is an NIMH-funded research center that aims to augment the capacity of pediatric primary care to identify, manage, and treat youth at risk for suicidal behavior.  ETUDES is designed to address the national crisis in youth mental health, which is characterized by dramatic increases in suicide and suicidal behavior and corresponding lack of clinically trained personnel to address this increased need. We focus in pediatric primary care because the vast majority of at-risk youth are never seen in specialty mental health, primary care and emergency settings are the most common last clinical contacts for those who die by suicide, and because interventions delivered in primary care show greater efficacy and acceptability, which especially true for youth of color.

 The ETUDES acronym stands for: Enhancing Triage and Utilization for Depression and Emergent Suicidality. A musical etude is a piece designed to test and enhance the capacity of the performer to master certain technical challenges in performance. So too, the work in ETUDES is designed to help pediatricians and mental health clinicians who work in pediatric primary care to meet the challenge of adolescent suicidal behavior. ETUDES brings together faculty from the two largest children’s hospitals in the Commonwealth, namely Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), with faculty from Pitt, Penn, University of Oregon, Hunter College, Columbia, Georgia Tech, and Kaiser Permanente. Our faculty are transdisciplinary, and bring together experts in treatment development, implementation science, health economics, health equity, bioinformatics, computer science, nursing, psychology, pediatrics, and psychiatry. ETUDES’ overarching goals, conducted in collaboration with practitioners, families, patients, and policy leaders are to:

• ·Develop and test predictive algorithms using data from health records, mobile sensing, and social media to identify who is at risk for suicidal behavior, and to identify temporal inflections in suicidal risk.

• Conduct a clinical trial in suicidal youth identified through screening in primary care of a suite of tools that improve identification and referral, adherence to treatment, and safety planning

• Address sources of disparity that may be driving the increase in suicide in Black youth by developing and testing interventions to combat online victimization, low activity, and poor sleep.

• Identify barriers and facilitators to use of interventions and tools developed by ETUDES to ensure acceptability and feasibility in practice settings and for youth of color and their families

• Provide education and assess the impact of this training for pediatricians in mental health competencies

• Promote the development of a diverse, national cohort of early career scientists with a commit to suicide prevention and health equity through mentorship and pilot funding

We believe that our Center can contribute to a reversal of the current disturbing upward trend in youth suicide and suicidal behavior. Let us know how we can be of service to you either by providing information, consultation, or collaboration. Together, we can reduce the rate of adolescent suicide and suicidal behavior.  On this website, you can learn more about adolescent suicide and suicidal behavior, the ETUDES team, our projects, findings, and products.

Dr. David Brent