Brief New Treatment for Suicide Attempts

University of Rochester

Status: Completed

Conditions: Suicide, Attempted; Drug Use; Alcohol; Use, Problem

Treatments: Behavioral: Enhanced treatment as usual; Behavioral: Brief intervention to prevent suicide attempt

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other; NIH

Identifiers

NCT03300596

RSRB00069554

Details and patient eligibility

About

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.

Enrollment: 34 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• suicide attempt within one week of hospitalization with acknowledgment of some intent to die using a standard item
• problematic alcohol or drug use as determined by score >8 on Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test, AUDIT or >3 on the 10-item version of the Drug Abuse Screening Test, DAST-10
• admission to hospital
• residence within 40 miles of Strong Memorial Hospital

Exclusion criteria

• under age 18
• treated in ED, CPEP, or observation unit only
• unable to communicate with the researcher in English
• unable to comprehend the nature of the study
• participation untenable from a medical (e.g., intubated), psychiatric (e.g., florid psychosis), or behavioral (e.g., refusing to speak with staff) standpoint
• short hospital length of stay, ruling out administering three sessions of the therapy prior to discharge

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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34 participants in 2 patient groups

brief intervention to prevent suicide attempt

Experimental group

Description:

Individuals presenting to hospital following a suicide attempt who are age 18-plus and screen positive for alcohol or drug use problem

Treatment:

Behavioral: Brief intervention to prevent suicide attempt

standard of care

Other group

Description:

Individuals presenting to hospital following a suicide attempt who are age 18-plus and screen positive for alcohol or drug use problem

Treatment:

Behavioral: Enhanced treatment as usual