# EMERGE: Ecological Momentary Evaluation of Responses to Gain/Loss and Emotions

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST · 2024 · $50,705

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
 Suicide is a leading cause of death worldwide, accounting for nearly 800,000 deaths each year.1,2
Suicide rates continue to increase in the U.S.3 Patients seen in the emergency department are at elevated risk
of death4 and future suicidal behaviors.5 Most research on suicide risk factors has identified static, dispositional
factors.4 For instance, distal predictors of who is at risk for suicidal behaviors include dysfunctional emotional
responses1 and decision-making deficits.2 These data inform us about groups at elevated suicide risk, but do
very little to predict with useful precision when people will have suicidal thoughts or act on suicide thoughts.
Thus, there is an urgent need to identify proximal risk factors for suicide risk.
 The Parent Study, “EMERGE: Ecological Momentary Evaluation of Responses to Gain/Loss and Emotions”
(R01MH128546), addresses this question with ecological momentary assessment (EMA) of emotions and
reinforcement learning as predictors of near-term suicidal thoughts and behaviors in 170 emergency department
patients seen for a suicide-related complaint. Yet emergency department patients are disproportionately low
income7 and minoritized,8 and many are unstably housed.9 This population is therefore simultaneously critical to
consider in suicide research and difficult to retain in research studies, as evidenced by high attrition from
enrollment to our initial assessment period. This supplement application is intended to address these challenges
that have the potential to compromise our efforts to (1) collect adequate data to allow for an examination of our
primary aims with sufficient power, (2) manage risk without undermining data validity, and (3) understand barriers
to implementing future clinical interventions based on our results. Specifically, Aim 1 increases the sample size
of enrolled participants to overenroll to 210 and increase monetary incentives to allow for adequately powered
analyses. Aim 2 evaluates participants’ experiences of the risk assessment protocols and their impact on data
validity via additional survey and interview methods. Aim 3 identifies barriers and facilitators of accessing
psychiatric care in this population via additional survey and interview methods.
 To date, our research team has shown the ability to enroll participants on target and conduct this study safely.
This supplement will leverage this study of a particularly vulnerable population and allow us to make substantial
inroads in improving our suicide research and care.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 11062943
- **Project number:** 3R01MH128546-03S1
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST
- **Principal Investigator:** Katherine Lee Dixon-Gordon
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $50,705
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2022-02-15 → 2026-12-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/11062943

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 11062943, EMERGE: Ecological Momentary Evaluation of Responses to Gain/Loss and Emotions (3R01MH128546-03S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/11062943. Licensed CC0.

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