Effectiveness of a 24 Hour Phone Line on the Rate of Suicide Attempts in Borderline Patients

This randomized multicentric clinical trial assesses the effectiveness of 24 hour phone line on the rate of suicide attempts and self-injurious behaviors in borderline patients.

Borderline personality disorder is very frequent among psychiatric populations, and chronic suicidality is a major problem in clinical practice with borderline patients. In a lot of countries, suicide prevention centers are available, but most of these centers are not supervised by professionals of mental health, and none is specifically oriented to the borderline population. The main goal of this study is to assess the effectiveness of a 24 hour crisis phone line on the rate of suicide attempts in a clinical population of borderline patients (the effectiveness of this phone line access on the rate of self-injurious behaviours will also be studied). In this multicentric controlled trial, 600 borderline patients (men or women, in or out-patients, between 18 and 40 years-old) are randomized in two arms : one with treatment as usual one with treatment as usual, PLUS one year of access to a 24 hour crisis phone line (with a team of psychiatrists specialized in borderline personality disorder). All patients are assessed with standardized instruments (interviewers are blind to the patient's status), at entry (T1) and one year later (T2).

borderline personality disorder, suicide, suicidality, suicide attempt, suicidal behavior, self-injurious behavior, self-harm behavior, suicide prevention center, telephone intervention

24 hour phone line is available as soon as the patient himself feels necessary. This phone line is supported by professionals of mental health, all specialised in borderline personality disorder

Inclusion Criteria: 18 to 40 years old in or out-patient in one of the recruiting center men or women with a borderline personality disorder written informed consent Exclusion Criteria: inferior to 18 or superior to 40 years old schizophrenia severe somatic disorder participation refusal participation to another interventional study

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