Child Protection Services Suicide Research

http://www.med.upenn.edu/suicide/research.html

 

Suicide Research

The studies listed below are conducted by the Center and focus on basic research as well as the efficacy and effectiveness of CT for suicide prevention.

Agency-Wide Training in Community-Based Cognitive Therapy for Suicide Attempters

Investigators: Aaron T. Beck, M.D., Gregory K. Brown, Ph.D., and Shannon Wiltsey Stirman, Ph.D.
Project Director: Katherine Toder, B.A.

The aims of this pilot study are to conduct a preliminary investigation of the outcomes and sustainability of a Cognitive Therapy for the prevention of suicide when administered to suicide attempters in community settings on an agency-wide basis, to develop means of assessing outcomes using administrative data and assessment instruments that can be administered in community mental health settings, and to assess the feasibility of an organization-level intervention to promote the dissemination and sustained adoption of CT in community settings.

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Cognitive Therapy for Suicide Ideation with Substance Dependence Disorder

Investigators: Gregory K. Brown, Ph.D and Aaron T. Beck, M.D. and Amy Wenzel, Ph.D.
Project Director: Jarrod Reisweber, Psy.D.

This study is a randomized, controlled clinical trial comparing the effectiveness of the cognitive therapy intervention described above when administered by addictions counselors. This study aims (a) to adapt cognitive therapy (CT) for reducing suicide ideation in patients who endorse persistent suicide ideation and have a substance dependence disorder, and (b) to assess feasibility and explore the effectiveness of CT in addition to enriched usual care (compared to enriched usual care alone) in reducing suicide ideation and hopelessness, reducing substance use, and increasing compliance with substance abuse treatment. The therapy is administered in community mental health centers and drug rehabilitation facilities by counselors with at least a master degree.

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Community Based Cognitive Therapy for Suicide Attempters

Investigators: Aaron T. Beck, M.D. and Gregory K. Brown, Ph.D.
Project Director: Emily Haigh, Ph.D.

This randomized, controlled clinical trial aims to evaluate the efficacy and effectiveness of a targeted 10-session cognitive therapy intervention protocol for recent suicide attempters as delivered in “real world” community settings by trained mental health professionals. Our plan is to randomize 140 recent suicide attempters to one of two conditions: (1) Enriched Care or (2) Cognitive Therapy + Enriched Care. The Enriched Care condition consists of assessment and referral services provided by our study case managers, in addition to the usual care that these patients receive. The Cognitive Therapy condition consists of a 10-session structured manualized treatment protocol administered by a trained community mental health professional, in addition to the enriched care services. The primary goal of the cognitive intervention is to reduce subsequent suicide attempts by focusing treatment on the attempt as well as decreasing psychological risk factors for suicidal behavior (i.e., depression, ideation, and hopelessness). Clinical trial data indicate that the re-occurrence of subsequent suicide attempts can be reduced by approximately 50% with the implementation of this cognitive program. Other goals of the intervention include increasing patients’ adaptive use of social support as well as use of and compliance with adjunctive medical, substance abuse, psychiatric, and social services.

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Cognitive Therapy for Suicidal Older Men

Investigators: Aaron T. Beck, M.D. and Gregory K. Brown, Ph.D.
Project Director: Katherine Toder, B.A.

This is a treatment development study which will determine the feasibility of conducting a randomized, controlled clinical trial of cognitive therapy for older men with suicide or death ideation. The goal of the study will be to evaluate whether cognitive therapy is more efficacious for reducing suicidal ideation than the treatment typically received by older men at a high risk for suicide. Men, aged 60 and above, who are experiencing thoughts of suicide, will be recruited from primary care medical practices. The participants will receive twelve sessions of cognitive therapy with a Ph.D. level psychologist. Once the study progresses to a randomized, controlled clinical trial, participants will be randomly assigned to receive either cognitive therapy plus usual care or usual care alone.

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Drug Abuse, Psychological Variables and Suicide Attempts

Investigators: Gregory K. Brown, Ph.D and Aaron T. Beck, M.D.
Project Director: Megan Spokas, Ph.D.

The purpose of this study is to use an existing database to examine prospectively the relationship among drug abuse, clinical and psychological variables, and repeated suicide attempts. Detailed clinical narratives of the suicide attempts are systematically analyzed to develop a psychological model that describes the patterns that typically precede a suicide attempt.

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Suicide-Relevant Cognitive Biases and Cognitive Therapy: A Longitudinal Investigation

Investigator: Amy Wenzel, Ph.D.
Project Director: Megan Spokas, Ph.D.

This study aims to examine changes in impulsivity and suicide-relevant cognitive biases in suicide attempters over a one-year period and as a function of type of treatment received (i.e., cognitive therapy or treatment-as-usual).

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Pilot Project for the Development of a Suicide Attempt Registry and Classification of Suicidal Behavior for Adults

Investigator: Gregory K. Brown, Ph.D.
Project Director: Sean Gallagher, M.S.

This study tests the feasibility of developing and implementing a multi-site suicide attempt registry in the psychiatric ED and to compare the classification of suicide attempts obtained by the clinical evaluation in the psychiatric emergency department (ED) with the classification of suicide attempts obtained by research evaluation at three major university-based medical centers: the University of Pennsylvania, Columbia University, and the University of Rochester.