Supplementing Brief Psychotherapy With a Mobile App

Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey66 enrolled

Overview

Suicide is among the leading causes of death worldwide, and the risk of suicide is highest in the period immediately following discharge from inpatient psychiatric care.1Importantly, despite the enormously elevated risk during this period, nearly 50% of patients do not attend scheduled therapy after discharge. Even among those who do attend therapy, however, the skills learned in treatment may be difficult to use during the highly distressing time leading up to and during a suicide crisis. Most traditional treatments are not designed to be effective during a suicide crisis. In order to reduce the risk of suicidal thoughts and behaviors in general and specifically during the post-discharge period, interventions are needed that: (1) are easily adhered to and (2) are accessible and effective during a suicide crisis. As such, the purpose of this research study is to test an innovative, new intervention in order to develop an effective and accessible intervention for those at high risk for suicide

Study Type

INTERVENTIONAL

Allocation

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

NONE

Enrollment

Conditions

Suicide and Self-harm Emotion Regulation

Interventions

Eligibility

Sex: ALLMin age: 18 Years

Medical Language ↔ Plain English

Inclusion Criteria: * Adult status (18+ years) * Admission to eligible units in our partner hospital with a reason for admission having to do with suicide risk * The ability to speak and write English fluently, * Ownership of and consistent access to an internet-capable smartphone (e.g., an iPhone or Android phone) Exclusion Criteria \- The presence of any factor that impairs an individual's ability to provide informed consent and comprehend and effectively participate in the study including: an inability to speak or write English fluently, the presence of gross cognitive impairment due to florid psychosis, intellectual disability, dementia, acute intoxication, or the presence of extremely agitated or violent behavior.

Outcomes

Primary Outcomes

Momentary Suicidal Thinking

This is an 11-point scale regarding momentary self-reported intensity of suicidal urges ("Right now, how strongly do you want to kill yourself?". A score of 0 is equivalent to no suicidal thinking at all ("not at all"), a score of 10 is a score of very extreme suicidal thinking ("Extremely). Lower scores equal less severe suicidal thinking (i.e., a better outcome). Scores are averaged across all participants and all instances of survey completion.

Time frame: Assessed immediately before and immediately after each in-app skills-practice exercise, across the 28-day (4-week) post-discharge monitoring period; averaged across exercises within participant.

Self-efficacy for Managing Negative Emotion

Measured using the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) self-efficacy for managing negative emotions scale. The scale is measured with four five-point scale items, summed to a score ranging from 4 to 20 where higher scores are better.

Time frame: Beginning of study and end-of-study, approximately four weeks post discharge

Secondary Outcomes

Negative Emotion

Negative emotion ("How negative do you feel right now?") on a 0 to 10 scale, where 0 is not at all negative (i.e., better) and 10 is extremely negative. Slopes were extracted for each participant and then those values were averaged over the whole sample.