About Our Research
The Monson Lab, led by principal investigator Eric T. Monson, MD, PhD, investigates the intersection of psychological trauma and severe outcomes, including suicide, through the clinical and genetic evaluation of children and adolescents.
Advancing Risk Detection to Prevent Death by Suicide in Youth
Despite ongoing advances in the detection, treatment, and stigma reduction of severe mental illnesses, suicide rates continue to rise in the United States, particularly over the past two decades. Suicide death is occurring at the highest rate observed in 80 years and is currently the leading cause of death in adolescents and young adults in Utah. Considerable research has specifically been applied to understanding risk factors for suicide attempt, however, despite these advances, prediction of suicide death remains little better than chance.
Our lab seeks to improve risk assessment and detection of suicide risk within youth, with a particular emphasis on youth exposed to psychological trauma. The goal of our research is to better characterize risks, improve prevention efforts, guide more efficacious and timely interventions, improve management and outcomes for traumatized and vulnerable youth, and ultimately, prevent death from suicide.
Learn more about our research
Unique resources and promising collaborations
In a close partnership with Utah's Office of the Medical Examiner and the Utah Population Database, the Utah Suicide Mortality Risk Study (USMRS), of which our lab is a part, has collected biological samples from more than 10,000 suicide deaths over several decades. Leveraging this unique resource, we can evaluate risk factors in this population in more powerful and sophisticated ways than was previously possible.
Additionally, we participate in national and international collaboration with the Suicide Working Group of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium, the National Network of Depression Centers, PsycheMERGEand other institutions. These combined efforts and resources provide an opportunity to better characterize and define those with risk for and history of prior trauma exposure through developing methods that could improve basic research but also be translatable to improving delivery of evidence-based care and prevention of suicide to this vulnerable population.
Project 1
Characterization of Youth Exposed to Psychological Trauma who Die from Suicide
This study is focused on the clinical and genetic evaluation of youth exposed to psychological trauma who died from suicide. Children and adolescents who have been exposed to psychological trauma represent a unique clinical population that responds poorly to traditional treatments but benefits from specific evidence-based interventions. Current efforts are focused on improving the identification of prior trauma exposures with an initial emphasis on accurately identifying prior sexual trauma. This effort makes use of machine learning techniques such as natural language processing to evaluate large volumes of written notes. Improving the detection of individuals with prior trauma will allow, in turn, improved capacity to evaluate risk factors and guide the development of more generalizable methods that can be used to drive improvements in care delivery and suicide prevention.
Sponsored by a Brain and Behavior Research Foundation NARSAD Grant
Project 2
Constructing a Shared Genetic Resource for use in Youth Outcome Studies
This effort is focused on the development of a shared genetic resource to be used in collaborative youth outcome research studies. This resource will be developed through extracting DNA and genotyping hundreds of youth that have died from non-suicide causes. Individuals will be selected based on known prior exposures and comorbidities that will allow thoughtful comparisons with other youth populations, including populations being evaluated in other studies in our lab and future collaborative efforts.
Sponsored by a Ben B. and Iris M. Margolis Scholar Award
COLLABORATORS:
Project 3
Improving Research Definitions for Suicidality for Genetic Studies
In collaboration with the Suicide Working Group of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium (PGC) and Dr. John Mann from Columbia University, our lab is working to improve international definitions of suicidality applied within research studies. Our lab is particularly helping to guide the adoption of consistent rules for utilizing International Classification of Disease (ICD) codes for defining prior suicidal ideation and attempts in genetic research studies. This includes the quantitative evaluation of these lists within existing data through collaborators at Vanderbilt University and the Cooperative Studies Program through the US Department of Veteran Affairs.
Project 4
Evaluation of Trends of Suicide in the Utah Youth and Young Adult Populations
Our lab is leading an effort to evaluate current general trends in suicide in youth and young adults within the state of Utah. This includes evaluation of manner of death, demographic factors, and clinical comorbidities to better understand how the landscape of suicide has been evolving in young individuals over the last two decades. These efforts will help increase understanding of areas of possible improvement or intervention in suicide prevention efforts.
COLLABORATORS:
Project 5
Evaluation of Psychotropic Medication Use Trends in Fostered Youth in Utah
Our lab collaborates with the Utah Psychotropic Oversight Program to evaluate prescription patterns of psychotropic medications in fostered youth, a highly vulnerable population. With guidance from the program, rates of use of psychotropic medications with higher risk profiles, such as antipsychotics, have been significantly decreasing. Ongoing efforts to evaluate interventions as improved strategies are implemented are taking place.
Collaborators
Departments and Groups
Meet our research team
Principal Investigator
Eric T. Monson, MD, PhD
Dr. Monson is board-certified in Psychiatry. His clinical focus is on psychological trauma and suicide among children and adolescents. He provides specialized care and conducts research utilizing computational genetics to develop effective prevention and intervention strategies.
Lab members
Selected Publications
- Eric T. Monson, Sachi Shastri, Danli Chen, Stacy L. Madden, Brooks R. Keeshin. The Utah Psychotropic Oversight Program: Collaboratively Addressing Antipsychotic use within Youth in Foster Care without Prior Authorization. Frontiers in Psychiatry. Nov. 3, 2023; 14: 1271165.
- Han S, DiBlasi E, Monson ET, et al. Whole-genome sequencing analysis of suicide deaths integrating brain-regulatory eQTLs data to identify risk loci and genes [published online ahead of print, 2023 Oct 4]. Mol Psychiatry. 2023;10.1038/s41380-023-02282-x. doi:10.1038/s41380-023-02282-x ; PMID: 37794117.
- Docherty AR, Mullins N, Ashley-Koch AE, Xuejun Qin, Jonathan RI Coleman, Andrey Shabalin, JooEun Kang, Balasz Murnyak, Frank Wendt, Mark Adams, Adrian I Campos, Emily DiBlasi, Janice M Fullerton, Henry R Kranzler, Amanda V Bakian, Eric T Monson, et al. GWAS Meta-Analysis of Suicide Attempt: Identification of 12 Genome-Wide Significant Loci and Implication of Genetic Risks for Specific Health Factors. Am J Psychiatry. 2023;180(10):723-738. doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.21121266 ; Pubmed ID: 37777856.
- Mirza, S., Docherty, A.R., Monson, E.T., Coon, H., Keeshin, B. and Fries, G.R. (2023), Understanding heterogeneity in suicidal thoughts and behaviours and the implications for genetic studies – a commentary on Lannoy et al. (2022). J Child Psychol Psychiatr. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.13778
- Kimbrel NA, Ashley-Koch AE, Qin XJ, et al. Identification of Novel, Replicable Genetic Risk Loci for Suicidal Thoughts and Behaviors Among US Military Veterans. JAMA Psychiatry. 2023;80(2):135–145. doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2022.3896.
- Li QS, Shabalin AA, DiBlasi E, Gopal S, Canuso CM; FinnGen, International Suicide Genetics Consortium; Palotie A, Drevets WC, Docherty AR, Coon H. Genome-wide association study meta-analysis of suicide death and suicidal behavior. Mol Psychiatry. 2023 Feb;28(2):891-900. doi: 10.1038/s41380-022-01828-9. Epub 2022 Oct 17. PMID: 36253440; PMCID: PMC9908547.
- Keeshin BR and Monson E. Assessing and Responding to the Trauma of Child Maltreatment. Focus. 2022, Apr 1;20(2):176-183. doi: 10.1176/appi.focus.2021003.
- Coon H, Shabalin A, Bakian AV, DiBlasi E, Monson ET, Kirby A, Chen D, Fraser A, Yu Z, Staley M, Callor WB, Christensen ED, Crowell SE, Gray D, Crockett DK, Li QS, Keeshin B, Docherty AR. Extended familial risk of suicide death is associated with younger age at death and elevated polygenic risk of suicide. Am J Med Genet B Neuropsychiatr Genet. 2022 Feb 24. doi: 10.1002/ajmg.b.32890. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 35212135.
- Docherty AR, Bakian AV, DiBlasi E, Shabalin AA, Chen D, Keeshin B, Monson E, Christensen ED, Li Q, Gray D, Coon H. Suicide and Psychosis: Results From a Population-Based Cohort of Suicide Death (N = 4380). Schizophr Bull. 2021 Sep 24:sbab113. doi: 10.1093/schbul/sbab113. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 34559220.
- Monson ET, Shabalin AA, Docherty AR, DiBlasi E, Bakian AV, Li QS, Gray D, Keeshin B, Crowell SE, Mullins N, Willour VL, Coon H. Assessment of suicide attempt and death in bipolar affective disorder: a combined clinical and genetic approach. Transl Psychiatry. 2021 Jul 7;11(1):379. doi: 10.1038/s41398-021-01500-w. PMID: 34234108; PMCID: PMC8263578.
Contact
Eric T. Monson, MD, PhD
Principal Investigator