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Caring Letters for Military Suicide Prevention

NCT01473771 · Status: COMPLETED · Phase: NA · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 1319

Last updated 2018-08-23

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

The purpose of this multi-site randomized controlled trial is to determine if the Caring Letters intervention is effective in preventing suicide and suicidal behaviors among U.S. Service Members and Veterans. The primary aim of this project is determine whether caring communications following inpatient psychiatric treatment reduce suicide and self-inflicted injuries among U.S. military personnel and Veterans. The investigators will also explore treatment utilization by comparing the frequency of treatment visits after enrollment into the study. The following specific hypotheses will be tested:

Hypothesis 1: During a two year follow-up after the index hospital discharge, the frequency of suicide will be lower among participants in the Caring Letters group compared to those in the Usual Care group.

Hypothesis 2: The frequency of medically admitted self-inflicted injuries will also be lower in the Caring Letters group compared to the Usual Care group.

Hypothesis 3: The time to suicidal act, among those who do subsequently exhibit one, will be longer among participants in the Caring Letters group compared to the Usual Care group.

Conditions

  • Suicide
  • Suicide, Attempted

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Caring Letter (email)

Participants will be emailed "letters" for two years. The first letter will be sent one week afer discharge from the inpatient psychiatric unit. There will be four subsequent email letters sent every month starting from the day of discharge, then another four every two months. The last four email letters will be sent every three months for the remainder of the two year period.

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • United States Department of Defense

    collaborator FED

  • U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command

    collaborator FED

  • National Center for Telehealth and Technology

    lead FED

Principal Investigators

  • David D Luxton, PhD · National Center for Telehealth and Technology

Study Design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
PREVENTION
Masking
NONE
Model
PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age
18 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2011-11-30
Primary Completion
2018-08-31
Completion
2018-08-31

Countries

  • United States
  • Germany

Study Locations

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Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT01473771 on ClinicalTrials.gov