Individuals with alcohol or drug use problems who are hospitalized for suicide attempt are at high risk for reattempt. This treatment development study adapts a promising outpatient intervention to prevent suicide reattempt in order to administer it during hospitalization to individuals with alcohol and drug use problems, and to test the adapted intervention in a pilot randomized controlled trial.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
SINGLE
Enrollment
34
A patient-centered, 3-session intervention that calls for videotaping the narrative story of a patient's suicide attempt, in his/her own words (session 1); reviewing segments of the tape to arrive at a shared understanding of the attempt and the sequence of events that led to it (session 2); and using this information, along with a homework task completed by the patient in-between sessions, in order to develop a collaborative, comprehensive written safety plan that addresses the patient's unique vulnerabilities (session 3).
Safety procedures' control intervention. For these procedures we will share summary results of the research assessments regarding suicidal thoughts, suicidal behaviors, alcohol and drug use and related problems, and depressive symptoms with appropriate hospital clinical staff. We will also arrange to send this information, with participants' permission, to their ongoing therapist or treatment program and, if none exists, to the therapist or program to which they are being referred. In this regard, the research assessment protocol serves a dual function of helping with additional monitoring of high-risk patients in addition to providing data for the study.
University of Rochester Medical Center
Rochester, New York, United States
suicide reattempt
number who reattempt suicide
Time frame: 6 months
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