Brief Intervention for Suicide Risk Reduction in High Risk Adolescents

Summary

Adolescent suicide is the 2nd leading cause of death in this age group. There are no validated treatments to decrease the risk of adolescent suicidal behavior, and there are especially no interventions to target the highest risk period for adolescent suicide and suicidal behavior, namely during the time of transition from inpatient to outpatient care. This purpose of this project was to develop a novel, brief intervention that can be delivered on an inpatient unit prior to the transition to outpatient care, and augment known factors to protect adolescents from suicidal behavior, and extend the impact of treatment by liaison with the outpatient therapist and the development of a personalized safety plan phone application. This treatment, ASAP, focuses on augmenting adherence to the components of ASAP and outpatient aftercare, development of a personalized Safety Plan, and Affect Protection, through helping the teen and family promote a positive mood, tolerate distress, engage in healthy emotion regulation and access social support.

Conditions

• Adolescent Behavior

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

As Safe As Possible

The ASAP (As Safe As Possible) treatment is a brief, intensive intervention initiated during inpatient care and transitioning to outpatient care. The intervention focuses on 1) using motivational interviewing (MI) strategies throughout care; 2) developing a safety plan, including adapting the plan to an interactive safety plan phone app, Brite); and 3) using treatment modules to target specific risk factors that are selected based on individual need.

BEHAVIORAL

Brite

Brite is a HIPAA-compliant mobile application designed to provide the participants with emotion regulation and distress tolerance skills, social support, and convenient access to safety plan resources via the patients' phone.

BEHAVIORAL

Treatment as Usual

Participants received usual treatment for suicidal adolescents as they transition from inpatient hospitalization to outpatient therapy, which included a paper safety plan.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center

  collaborator OTHER

• University of Pittsburgh

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• David Brent, MD · University of Pittsburgh

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

12 Years

Max Age

17 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2014-02-28

Primary Completion

2017-07-31

Completion

2017-11-30

Countries

• United States

Study Locations