Establishing Efficacy of an Inpatient Intervention and Phone App to Reduce Suicide Risk

Reducing suicide risk among adolescents after they’ve been hospitalized for suicidal thoughts and behaviors is a major aim of suicide prevention. One way we can have an impact is by developing interventions that can help adolescents manage stress and suicidal urges during the critical period post hospital discharge. Recently, researchers have developed two new interventions: a brief inpatient intervention focused on emotion regulation and safety planning called As Safe As Possible (ASAP), and a mobile app called BRITE that guides adolescents through emotion regulation skill with a personalized safety plan.

To test the effectiveness of these two interventions when used separately and together, Drs. Beth Kennard and David Brent recruited 240 adolescents who had been hospitalized for suicidal thoughts and behaviors and randomly assigned them to different groups to receive either ASAP, BRITE, both, or just regular care. Drs. Kennard and Brent found that ASAP helped reduce the chances of being re-hospitalized, while the BRITE app seemed to lower the risk of future suicide attempts in those who had already tried to harm themselves. Although no single approach stood out as much better than the others, combining both ASAP and BRITE showed a trend toward reducing suicide attempts. These findings demonstrate the importance of matching interventions to the an individual’s experience.

Citation: Goldstein, T. R., Kennard, B. D., Porta, G., Miller, A. O., Aguilar, K., Bigley, K., Vaughn-Coaxum, R. A., McMakin, D. L., Douaihy, A., Iyengar, S., Biernesser, C. L., Zelazny, J., & Brent, D. A. (2024). Bridging Gaps in Care Following Hospitalization for Suicidal Adolescents: As Safe As Possible (ASAP) and BRITE App. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaac.2024.06.008