D. Donaldson et al., STRUCTURED DISPOSITION PLANNING FOR ADOLESCENT SUICIDE ATTEMPTERS IN A GENERAL-HOSPITAL - PRELIMINARY FINDINGS ON SHORT-TERM OUTCOME, Archives of suicide research, 3(4), 1997, pp. 271-282
Adolescent suicide attempters are often noncompliant with outpatient p
sychotherapy and drop out of treatment much more quickly than non-suic
idal adolescents. In this study, 23 adolescents received medical treat
ment and a standard psychiatric evaluation in an Emergency Department
following a suicide attempt. In addition, all subjects and their paren
ts received a psychotherapy compliance enhancement intervention which
included a verbal agreement between the adolescent and parent/guardian
to attend at least four psychotherapy sessions. After discharge from
the hospital, each subject received three phone interviews over an 8 w
eek period using a problem solving approach around two key areas: suic
idal ideation and psychotherapy compliance. Compared to a three month
follow-up of 78 subjects (which did not include an experimental interv
ention), conducted at the same hospital, the experimental intervention
resulted in fewer outpatient psychotherapy 'no shows' (9% vs. 18%) an
d a trend toward greater number of sessions attended (5.5 vs. 3.9). Th
ere were no re-attempts in the experimental group as compared to 9% in
the comparison group. Results are promising and a randomized interven
tion trial appears indicated.