Brief New Treatment for Suicide Attempts

Suicidal Adults With Alcohol or Drug Use Problems: A New Hospital-based Treatment

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 Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Suicide, Attempted; Drug Use; Alcohol; Use, Problem
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Brief intervention to prevent suicide attempt; Behavioral: Enhanced treatment as usual

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 34
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • New York
    • Rochester, New York, United States, 14642
      • University of Rochester Medical Center

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

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

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Treatment
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Single

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: brief intervention to prevent suicide attempt; Individuals presenting to hospital following a suicide attempt who are age 18-plus and screen positive for alcohol or drug use problem	Behavioral: Brief intervention to prevent suicide attempt; 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).; Other Names: Modification of the Attempted Suicide Short Intervention Program (ASSIP)
Other: standard of care; Individuals presenting to hospital following a suicide attempt who are age 18-plus and screen positive for alcohol or drug use problem	Behavioral: Enhanced treatment as usual; 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.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
suicide reattempt	number who reattempt suicide	6 months

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Rochester
• Collaborators: National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Witt KG, Hetrick SE, Rajaram G, Hazell P, Taylor Salisbury TL, Townsend E, Hawton K. Psychosocial interventions for self-harm in adults. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2021 Apr 22;4(4):CD013668. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD013668.pub2.
• Conner KR, Kearns JC, Esposito EC, Pizzarello E, Wiegand TJ, Britton PC, Michel K, Gysin-Maillart AC, Goldston DB. Pilot RCT of the Attempted Suicide Short Intervention Program (ASSIP) adapted for rapid delivery during hospitalization to adult suicide attempt patients with substance use problems. Gen Hosp Psychiatry. 2021 Sep-Oct;72:66-72. doi: 10.1016/j.genhosppsych.2021.07.002. Epub 2021 Jul 19.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): March 12, 2018
• Primary Completion (Actual): September 15, 2020
• Study Completion (Actual): September 15, 2020

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: September 28, 2017
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: September 28, 2017
• First Posted (Actual): October 3, 2017

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): September 17, 2020
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: September 15, 2020
• Last Verified: September 1, 2020

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Behavioral Symptoms; Drinking Behavior; Self-Injurious Behavior; Alcohol Drinking; Suicide; Suicide, Attempted
• Other Study ID Numbers: RSRB00069554

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No