242 www.psychiatria.viamedica.pl tom 14, nr 4, 242–248 © Copyright 2017 Via Medica ISSN 1732–9841 Psychiatria PRACA ORYGINALNA Adres do korespondencji: Tytus J. Koweszko Clinic of Psychiatry, Faculty of Health Sciences, Medical University of Warsaw, Poland e-mail: koweszko@gmail.com Tytus J. Koweszko 1 , Jacek Gierus 1 , Maksym Kosiński 2 , Anna Mosiołek 1 , Agata Szulc 1 1 Clinic of Psychiatry, Faculty of Health Sciences, Medical University of Warsaw, Poland 2 Jan Mazurkiewicz Specialist Health Center, Pruszków, Poland Diagnostic accuracy of the Verbal Suicide Scale (VSS) in the group of psychiatrically hospitalised patients Abstract Introduction: The purpose of this study is to present the validation process of the Verbal Suicide Scale (VSS). The method was developed to assess the psychiatric patients’ attitudes towards suicide. The researchers decided to determine the diagnostic capabilities of the tool in the process of anticipating suicidal behaviour. Material and methods: The study covered 157 psychiatrically hospitalised patients, who were examined with the VSS, C-SSRS, NGASR scales, SOC-29 questionnaire, and descriptive questionnaire. The relations between the VSS results with the number of suicide attempts, psychiatric diagnosis, and age were subject to analysis in terms of psychometric properties in three groups of psychiatrically hospitalised patients divided by the circumstances in which they were admitted to the hospital. Results: The results of the VSS subscales reveal the Spearman’s rho (p < 0.05) with SOC-29 scales, C-SSRS risk factors and protective factors, NGASR scale, as well as demographic and general variables. There are also intergroup differences proved with the Mann-Whitney U test depending on the presence of risk factors. Certain attitudes towards suicide are related to the occurrence of individual risk factors. Conclusions: The obtained results suggest that suicide is an action independent of the conscious attitude itself. The VSS results refer to the greatest extent to patients abusing/addicted to psychoactive substances. Further studies in the group of subjects are required. Psychiatry 2017; 14, 4: 242–248 Key words: psychiatry, suicide, diagnosis, suicide prevention, psychometrics Introduction This study is a continuation of the paper presenting the construction and factor structure of the Verbal Suicide Scale (VSS). The conducted factor analysis showed that the VSS structure is consistent with theoretical assump- tions and a satisfactory internal consistency of individual factors. The authors distinguished three subscales de- termining the subjects’ attitudes towards suicide. The subscales were named as follows: suffering avoidance subscale (I), internalised aggression subscale (II), and sense of hopelessness subscale (III) [1]. Due to the fact that the VSS refers to attitudes towards suicide rather than directly to the patient’s clinical condition or en- vironmental risk factors, an attempt to determine the method’s accuracy in estimating suicide risk was made. The determination of the relations between the subscales and external methods as well as risk factor indicators and objective demographic factors serves the purpose of resolving two types of psychometric controversies. One concerns the extent to which the latent variable in the form of suicide risk can be measured with the indicator referring to the implicit attitudes towards suicide [2, 3]. The other controversy concerns the perennial problem, originating from R. Cattell, of whether the scale ob- tained as a result of the factor analysis measures implicit objective factors or is a mere effect of statistical data organisation [4, 5]. The purpose of this study is to determine the VSS accu- racy in terms of criteria and theory.