Using Advances in Technology to Advance the Understanding, Prediction, and Prevention of Suicide

Suicide is a leading cause of death in the US and worldwide. Whereas the mortality rate associated with many leading causes of death (cancer, pneumonia, HIV/AIDS) has declined dramatically over the past decades, the suicide rate is the same now as it was 100 years ago. Recent advances in technology and computing are providing tools that have been used to advance the understanding, prediction, and prevention of suicidal behaviors in recent years. This presentation will review some of these advances and the ways in which they could be incorporated into clinical practice in a range of different hospital- and community-based settings.

Matthew K. Nock, Ph.D.

Matthew K. Nock, Ph.D. is the Edgar Pierce Professor of Psychology, Harvard College Professor (2019-2024), and Chair of the Department of Psychology at Harvard University. Professor Nock received his Ph.D. in psychology from Yale University (2003) and completed his clinical internship at Bellevue Hospital and the New York University Child Study Center (2003). Nock’s research is aimed at advancing the understanding why people behave in ways that are harmful to themselves, with an emphasis on suicide and other forms of self-harm. His research is multi-disciplinary in nature and uses a range of methodological approaches (e.g., epidemiologic surveys, laboratory-based experiments, clinic-based studies, digital monitoring via smartphones and biosensors, and web- and social-media-based experiments) to better understand how these behaviors develop, how to predict them, and how to prevent their occurrence. This work is funded by grants from the US National Institutes of Health, US Department of Defense, US Army, and private foundations and has been published in over 350 scientific papers. Nock’s work has been recognized through the receipt of career awards from the American Psychological Association, the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies, and the American Association of Suicidology; and in 2011 he received a MacArthur Fellowship (aka “Genius Grant”). At Harvard, Professor Nock has taught courses on statistics, research methods, self-destructive behaviors, developmental psychopathology, and cultural diversity—for which he has received teaching and mentoring awards including the Roslyn Abramson Teaching Award, the Petra Shattuck Prize, and the Lawrence H. Cohen Outstanding Mentor Award.

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