Integrated Suicide & Trauma Therapy for Suicide Risk (ISTT)

January 13, 2026 updated by: Unity Health Toronto

Using Integrated Suicide and Trauma Therapy to Reduce Suicide Risk Among Adults With a History of Childhood Trauma

The investigators have developed a novel suicide intervention, Integrated Suicide and Trauma Therapy (ISTT). ISTT combines Brief-Skills for Safer Living (Brief-SfSL)-a promising method to enhance coping skills and reduce suicidality-with a trauma therapy component to alleviate the specific impacts of childhood trauma on suicide risk. The aim of this pilot is to test 12-weeks of ISTT to alleviate suicide risk among individuals with a history of childhood trauma and current suicidality.

Study Overview

Status

Recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

In the last 10 years, despite available treatments, suicide rates have not significantly decreased, and individuals who have experienced any type of childhood maltreatment are at increased odds for suicide attempt. Effective suicide prevention requires learning skills to cope with suicidality in addition to addressing the antecedent factors that contribute to suicide risk. In the context of those with childhood trauma and suicidality, addressing antecedent factors may require treatments that target symptoms associated with developmental trauma. Thus, the investigators have developed an integrated suicide intervention, Integrated Suicide and Trauma Therapy (ISTT). ISTT combines Brief-Skills for Safer Living (Brief-SfSL)-a promising method to enhance coping skills and reduce suicidality-with a trauma therapy component to alleviate the specific impacts of childhood trauma on suicide risk. The aim of this pilot is to test 12-weeks of BSTT to alleviate suicide risk among individuals with a history of childhood trauma and current suicidality.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

20

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Contact

Study Contact Backup

  • Name: Sakina Rizvi, PhD,MACP,RP
  • Phone Number: 6489 416-864-6060
  • Email: rizvisa@smh.ca

Study Locations

  • Canada
    • Ontario
      • Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M5B 1M8
        • Recruiting
        • St. Michael's Hospital
        • Contact:
        • Principal Investigator:
          • Sakina Rizvi, PhD, RP

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Beck Scale for Suicidal Ideation > 10
  • Presence of childhood trauma defined by a minimum moderate score on any of the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire subscales (emotional abuse, physical, abuse, sexual abuse, emotional neglect, and physical neglect
  • Presence of any psychiatric diagnosis
  • Ability to provide informed consent
  • Not receiving other psychotherapy concurrently
  • Ability to undergo psychotherapy in English

Exclusion Criteria:

  • The presence of cognitive impairment that would limit consent or understanding of ISTT
  • The presence of active psychosis
  • Unwilling or unable to provide informed consent

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: N/A
  • Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Integrated Suicide and Trauma Therapy (BSTT)
This novel suicide intervention integrates Brief Skills for Safer Learning (B-SfSL) with trauma therapy. ISTT incorporates the guiding principles of taking a non-pathologizing approach to treatment, emphasizing safety, attending to the therapeutic relationship, empowering clients, and incorporating solution-focused concepts.
Other: Integrated Suicide and Trauma Therapy
12-week trauma therapy for suicide risk

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Change in Beck Scale for Suicide Ideation (BSS) score
Time Frame: From baseline to 1 week post-therapy
Beck Scale for Suicide Ideation is a 21-item self-report scale that quantifies suicidal ideation. Items are scored 0 to 2 and yield a total score ranging from 0 to 38. Higher scores reflect greater severity of suicidal ideation.
From baseline to 1 week post-therapy
Feasibility and acceptability of ISTT
Time Frame: From baseline to 1 week post-therapy
Acceptability of Intervention Measure (AIM), Intervention Appropriateness Measure (IAM), Feasibility of Intervention Measure (FIM), in addition to a feedback survey and interview created in-house with questions designed to collect quantitative and qualitative feedback from participants with respect to the feasibility and acceptability of the BSTT intervention.
From baseline to 1 week post-therapy

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Change in Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-item scale (GAD-7) score
Time Frame: From baseline to 1-week post therapy
The GAD-7 is a brief 7-item self-report scale measuring anxiety symptoms. Total scores range from 0 to 21, with higher scores reflecting more severe anxiety.
From baseline to 1-week post therapy
Change in Quick Inventory of Depressive Symptoms 16-item scale (QIDS) score
Time Frame: From baseline to 1 week post-therapy
The QIDS is a 16-item validated depression scale. Total scores range from 0-27, with higher scores reflecting more severe depression.
From baseline to 1 week post-therapy
Change in Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale 36-item scale (DERS) score
Time Frame: From baseline to 1 week post-therapy
The DERS is a 36-item validated scale measuring six aspects of emotion regulation. The DERS is comprised of 6 subscales, where higher scores are reflective of greater difficulties in emotion regulation. The DERS is often analyzed by percentile.
From baseline to 1 week post-therapy

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Unity Health Toronto

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Sakina Rizvi, PhD,MACP,RP, Unity Health Toronto

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

December 8, 2025

Primary Completion (Estimated)

April 1, 2026

Study Completion (Estimated)

April 1, 2027

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

October 28, 2022

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

November 4, 2022

First Posted (Actual)

November 14, 2022

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

January 15, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

January 13, 2026

Last Verified

December 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • ISTT-01

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

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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