A recent study, published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), states the previous belief by doctors, patients and researchers that close contact or increased attention towards a young person during the “high-risk” period after they have attempted suicide is not an effective method of treatment.
During their study, researchers from Mental Health Services in the Capital Region of Denmark and the University of Copenhagen analyzed the effects of intervention programs and assertive outreach programs in helping adolescents after they have attempted to take their own lives. They determined that giving the adolescents increased attention does not influence their recovery.
The researchers conducted the study at the Research Unit of Psychiatric Centre Copenhagen during the years of 2007 and 2012.
243 patients who had recently attempted suicide were involved in the study – 120 of them were in the control group, while 123 were in the additional intervention group.
Surprisingly, the rate of repeat attempts to commit suicide after treatment was 17% for both the control group and the additional intervention group.
Lead researcher, Britt Morthorst from the Psychiatric Centre Copenhagen and the Faculty of Health and Medical Services commented: “Our results show that there is no difference between receiving standard treatment after an attempted suicide, or receiving assertive outreach intervention in addition.”
The authors note that standard treatment following a suicide attempt is commonly given by psychologist or the patient’s general practitioner, and is molded to fit the individual’s unique mental and physical health.
Normally the patient decides if they are willing to get help or get involved with a treatment plan. For this study, the standard treatment was given at the Competence Centre for Suicide Prevention under the auspices of Mental Health Services in the Capital Region of Denmark.
For the additional intervention program, visiting nurses went to the homes of the patients after they were released from the hospital. These nurses remained in close contact with the patients for 6 months following their hospital release – which included anywhere from 8-20 outreach meetings in conjunction with standard treatment.
The close-contact package involved going to the patients’ doctors appointments, meetings with social services, and regular visits to their homes. The program also offered contact via texting and phone calls to the patients.
The researchers note that close contact is far from the most important step in stopping repeated suicide attempts and concluded that one year after the patients were treated the rates of re-attempts of suicide were the same for the additional intervention group and the control group, who received standard treatment.
Britt Morthorst concludes:
“Unfortunately, the conclusion must be that neither standard treatment nor additional assertive outreach is good enough. My suggestion is that we try to get hold of young people at risk before they attempt suicide the first time. We are looking with interest at some American Teen-Screen programmes, which look at young people’s mental health generally, to see if we can identify any danger signals to which we could respond earlier.
Written by Christine Kearney