Suicide Preventive Psychosocial Treatment for Youths

Condition(s) studied

Investigational drug(s) / intervention(s)

Safe Alternatives for Teens and Youth (SAFETY): Please see description of experimental arm (arm one)

Enhanced Treatment As Usual: Please see description of active comparator arm (arm two).

Study summary

Suicide is the leading cause of death amongst 10-18-year-olds in Sweden. Suicide attempts are the strongest predictor of subsequent death by suicide, often lead to inpatient care, and are associated with substantial societal costs, making suicide attempts a critical target in psychiatric intervention research. Although youths attempting suicide are typically assessed and treated for potential comorbid psychiatric conditions, there is currently no trans-diagnostic evidence-based treatment specifically targeting suicidal behavior. To fill this gap, the Safe Alternatives for Teens and Youths (SAFETY) was developed. SAFETY is a transdiagnostic family-based cognitive-behavioral suicide prevention program that has shown promise but more studies are needed.

The overall objective of this project is to evaluate the efficacy, durability, and cost-effectiveness of the SAFETY intervention, a scalable suicide prevention intervention that can be offered immediately following a youth suicide attempt, in a fully powered single-blind randomized controlled superiority trial. Our primary hypothesis is that the SAFETY intervention will be superior to Enhanced Treatment As Usual (enhanced with the evidence-based intervention safety planning) in reducing the proportion of suicide reattempts. Moreover, we predict that these improvements will be maintained for up to 60 months post-treatment. Finally, we expect that SAFETY will be cost-effective compared to the control intervention, both at the primary endpoint and in the longer term.

Eligibility

Primary outcome measure(s)

• Suicide Attempt - any report from the Columbia-Suicide Severity Rating Scale (C-SSRS) or electronic medical records — Pre-treatment, immediately post-treatment, as well as 3-, 12-, 24- and 60-month post-treatment.
  Any report of suicide attempt, using data collected from: 1. Youth-report of the C-SSRS. The C-SSRS is a 22-item structured clinical interview assessing the frequency and severity of suicidal ideation, suicidal behaviors, and self-harm. 2. Caregiver-report of the C-SSRS (reduced 4-item version including only the suicidal behavior section). 3. Electronic medical records.

Trial sites (5)

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