# The Center for Enhancing Triage and Utilization for Depression and Emergent Suicidality (ETUDES) in Pediatric Primary Care

> **NIH NIH P50** · UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH AT PITTSBURGH · 2020 · $1,305,212

## Abstract

Overview Abstract
Suicide is the 2nd leading cause of death among adolescents and has increased by 20% in the past decade.
The majority of suicide decedents have their last clinical contact in primary care. This ALACRITY Center
proposes 3 studies designed to help PCPs capitalize on universal screening for teen depression by enhancing
pediatric primary care’s capacity to identify, triage, and manage depressed and suicidal adolescents. To
promote a consistent, best practice approach to adolescents who screen positive for depression or suicidality,
Study 1 develops a decision support system (DSS) to guide PCPs’ treatment recommendations to reflect
patient acuity, barriers, attitudes, and treatment preferences. To increase the low rate of treatment attendance
among patients who screen positive for depression, Study 2 develops and tests a personalized texting
intervention that targets patient and parent motivation, readiness, and barriers. To guide PCPs upon
identification of suicidal adolescents through routine screening, Study 3 develops and tests an app to guide the
PCP to develop a safety plan and stabilize the suicidal patient, thereby avoiding unnecessary referrals to the
ED and hospital. These studies are innovative through their use of technology to personalize interventions on
the basis of personal preferences, motivations, barriers, and clinical presentation. These interventions are
likely to be of high impact, by potentially doubling the rate of treatment adherence in depressed adolescents
and halving the rate of suicide attempts in those at high risk. We will solicit pilot projects through innovation
contests for teams of investigators and stakeholders on novel methods to identify and reduce suicidal risk in
adolescents, such use of data mining of health records to identify suicidal youth, and assessment of suicide
risk via analysis of speech and facial expression. These studies will be conducted in our CTSI-supported
pediatric research practice network, PittNet, which has successfully supported many mental health research
studies. PittNet facilitated meetings with pediatricians and other stakeholders to collaboratively develop these
priorities and associated studies, so that the ensuing products would be meaningful, practical, useful to
clinicians and patients, and highly likely to be disseminated. This Center provides shared infrastructure for the
engagement and collaboration with stakeholders, as well as for recruitment, assessment, technology
development, data management and analysis, access to EHRs and costs analyses. Our multidisciplinary team
of primary care and mental health professionals, data scientists, and health services researchers has
collectively led 9 NIH funded trials of mental health interventions in primary care, 10 NIMH-funded intervention
development or clinical trials for mood disordered and suicidal adolescents, and 7 NIH grants that develop and
test technologies to support clinicians and patients. This team has ext...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9917834
- **Project number:** 5P50MH115838-03
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH AT PITTSBURGH
- **Principal Investigator:** David A. Brent
- **Activity code:** P50 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $1,305,212
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-07-17 → 2022-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9917834

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9917834, The Center for Enhancing Triage and Utilization for Depression and Emergent Suicidality (ETUDES) in Pediatric Primary Care (5P50MH115838-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9917834. Licensed CC0.

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