Active clinical trials for "Self-Injurious Behavior"

In the United States (U.S.), suicide is a major public health concern. U.S. Veterans who live in rural areas may be at even higher risk for suicide than their urban counterparts. Available evidence indicates that suicide risk in rural U.S. Veterans is most concentrated during high-risk care transition scenarios such as discharge from an emergency room. There is limited knowledge about effective interventions to address suicide risk. There is a critical need to develop targeted interventions that address suicide risk during high-risk care transition periods. To be effective, these interventions should address key contributors to suicide risk such as reduced engagement in treatment. This clinical trial evaluates the effect of a suicide prevention intervention to support treatment engagement during high risk transition periods such as discharge from an emergency room.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the use of problem-solving therapy (PST), supplemented by a smartphone application, in the treatment of men who present to the Emergency Departments in Ontario. A total of 100 men in 5 Emergency Departments will be enrolled and randomized to receive either face-to-face PST or face-to-face PST supplemented by the BEACON Suicide Prevention smartphone application. Face-to-face therapy may be provided via videoconference to accommodate patient preference and ongoing pandemic restrictions. Participants will complete six sessions of PST and outcomes will be measured at baseline, 6 weeks, two post-therapy follow-up time points (3 and 6 months). Participants will also be asked to complete a qualitative interview about their participation in the study and their experience with the smartphone application.

Self-injurious thoughts and behaviors (SITBs), including suicide, thinking about suicide, and self-injury without intent to die, are major public health crises, with variably effective, and sometimes long and expensive, interventions. SITBs are particularly common in borderline personality disorder (BPD). Moreover, people with BPD often cannot access SITB treatment, drop out of them, and may lose their improvements after them. Reducing SITBs in BPD requires innovative interventions that have greater impact and are faster to deliver. SITBs are particularly influenced by emotion dysregulation (i.e., intense, negative emotion and difficulties changing it) and intimate relationship dysfunction, but leading evidence-based SITB interventions typically focus on the former, while neglecting the latter. For other mental health problems, couple treatments result in comparable or better individual outcomes relative to individually-delivered treatments, with added benefits of enhanced intimate relationship functioning. SITB treatment outcomes in BPD could likely be expedited and optimized with a couple intervention that targets emotion dysregulation in a relational context and intimate relationship dysfunction. This project aims to develop, refine, and test a brief SITB intervention delivered conjointly to individuals with BPD and SITBs (i.e., "patients") and their intimate partners (i.e., "partners")- Sage (formerly known as COMPASS (Connecting, Overcoming, and Moving Past Suicide and Self- injury))- that targets both emotion dysregulation and intimate relationship dysfunction to reduce SITBs and BPD symptoms in the short- and long-term. Prior to formal testing in an uncontrolled trial, it is important to solicit preliminary data regarding the clarity, accessibility, safety, tolerability, and efficacy of Sage. This project involves 3 Phases: translating Sage outlines into a manual (Phase 1); refining Sage (Phase 2); and an uncontrolled pilot trial of Sage (Phase 3). In Phase 1, the three stages of Sage will be manualized to focus on (1) developing a conjoint safety plan to reduce SITB risk, (2) reducing emotion dysregulation and intimate relationship dysfunction, and (3) changing patterns that maintain SITBs. In Phase 2, Sage will be delivered to 5-10 patients with BPD and SITBs and their partners (i.e., 5-10 couples) who will provide feedback about whether Sage is clear, helpful, and useable. This feedback will be used to refine the Sage manual. In Phase 3, the investigators will test whether Sage is safe, initially efficacious, and feasible by administering it to 15-20 patients with BPD and SITB and their partners (i.e., 15-20 couples). The investigators will examine whether Sage results in changes in SITBs and BPD symptoms in patients with BPD and SITBs, and SITB risk factors (e.g., emotion dysregulation and intimate relationship dysfunction) in both patients and partners. These outcomes will be measured multiple times per day during treatment using participant's smartphones (i.e., ecological momentary assessment), and interviews/questionnaires administered at the beginning, middle, end, and at 3 months after the intervention. The investigators predict that Sage will reduce SITBs and BPD symptoms in the patient with BPD and SITBs and improve emotion dysregulation and intimate relationship dysfunction in both patients with BPD and SITBs and their partners. This study offers a novel SITB and BPD treatment that directly targets SITBs, BPD symptoms, and the factors that drive them. Its short duration broadens the accessibility of BPD and SITB interventions with the potential to contribute to reducing SITBs and BPD symptoms on a large scale. During this period of social distancing due to COVID-19, Sage will be delivered remotely via secure videoconferencing (Zoom Healthcare). As social distancing restrictions lift, Sage will be delivered in the laboratory.

Despite decades of mounting single-case-design evidence for the efficacy of applied behavior analysis (ABA) and other approaches for the assessment and treatment of challenging behavior, an evidence-based comprehensive approach remains to exist. The current study will collect test the efficacy of a standardized manual for assessing and treating challenging behavior for individuals with severe and mild challenging behavior.

The proposed research addresses the urgent need to reduce suicide rates among teens. This will be the first study that the investigators know of that will examine the feasibility and preliminary effectiveness of augmenting a suicide-focused treatment (Dialectical Behavior Therapy, [DBT]) with an evidence-based treatment protocol for insomnia (a digital version of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia [CBT-I]). The goal of this clinical trial is to learn providing insomnia treatment in conjunction with suicide-focused treatment leads to greater reductions in suicidality and self-harm than suicide-focused treatment alone. Participants will be randomly assigned to receive 6 months of DBT plus CBT-I or to DBT alone and will complete research assessments measuring suicidal ideation, self-harm behavior and insomnia symptoms every four weeks over the course of the study, as well as one post-treatment follow-up assessment. Participants will also wear a device on their wrist (like a Fitbit or wristwatch) for 10 days following each assessment to collect data about their sleep.

This is a feasibility trial of a digital mental health intervention aimed at young adults (ages 18-25) with nonsuicidal self-injury and who are not currently engaged in mental health treatment. We will pilot three arms: a self-guided DMHI, the DMHI with low-intensity coaching, or an active control which will involve the delivery of non-interactive psychoeducational content via the same app interface. The primary goals of this project are to evaluate the feasibility of the intervention and trial procedures in preparation for a fully-powered randomized-controlled trial.

In the proposed study, three objectives will be pursued: To develop a method to identify more effectively the acute and long-term risk of adolescents with the most threatening self-harm behaviours. To identify the factors that influence the risk of self-harm behaviours and the success of treatment/treatment of these behaviours in the most at-risk adolescents (changes in these factors). Develop guidelines for more effective treatment of the most at-risk adolescents. For this purpose, a sample of approximately 200 young people who will be hospitalised for suicide risk (the most at risk in Slovenia) and an approximately equal number of healthy adolescents will be included. At inclusion, the presence of several factors will be assessed by reviewing demographic data, clinical diagnosis, self-assessment questionnaires and clinical psychological tests (CSSRS, B-NSSI-AT, ISAS, LPFS-BF2.0, BPFSC-11, TSCC, PAI, ECR-RS, DASA-YV, ASHRS), social assessment, and blood sampling for genetic analyses (DNA isolation, sequencing, nucleotide sequence recognition, quantification and evaluation of short tandem repeats, identification of methylation sites). Longitudinal tracking of autoaggressive events and heteroaggressive events during hospitalisation will be performed and recorded on an ongoing basis. The risk and protective factors of the adolescents most at risk will be compared with a control group of adolescents. The same factors will be reassessed in the most at-risk adolescents after 6 and 18 months of treatment as usual. The data will be collected in a data entry and storage system that will ensure the privacy of the data entered in accordance with the GDPR. This will allow the investigators to identify young people at particular risk of severe self-harm behaviour more reliably, to target them for more intensive and effective treatment, and thus to improve their safety, quality of life and prognosis in the short and long term.

This study is a 16-week intent-to-treat randomized controlled trial (RCT) with 120 suicidal juvenile justice (JJ)-involved transition-age (TA) youth (age 15-21 years) and a primary caregiver (dyads). Dyads will be randomly assigned to iKinnect2.0 (n=60 dyads) or Life360 (control app) plus an electronic suicide resources brochure (n=60 dyads). This design will test iKinnect2.0's new features for suicide prevention against TA youth awareness of and access to high-quality suicide prevention resources, while simultaneously testing features relating to conduct problems and parent management against parents knowing the TA youth's whereabouts in real-time and controlling for dyad member engagement in technology (Life360). Participants will be assessed at baseline, 4, 8 and 16 weeks. Primary youth-reported outcomes relating to suicide risk include: Suicidal behaviors (ideation, planning, attempts), non-suicidal self-injurious behaviors, self-efficacy in coping with distress, and use of imminent distress coping strategies (behavioral skills, use of crisis stabilization plan). Youth will also report on their criminal behavior. Primary caregiver-reported outcome variables relating to youth suicide include: Self-efficacy in applying family-based suicide-prevention strategies and reported use of those strategies; caregivers will also report on their own functioning (efficacy/confidence in parenting skills, life stress), TA youth functioning (internalizing and externalizing symptoms), parental management behaviors (expectation clarity, parental monitoring, discipline effectiveness/consistency, use of rewards), and parent-youth relationship quality (communication, conflict, support). App satisfaction and use of technology outcomes (i.e., degree of app usage, features used) will be examined and reported descriptively.

Self-injurious thoughts and behaviors (SITBs) are a serious public health concern, particularly for youth involved in the juvenile justice system (JJS), which the Georgia State Juvenile Justice System (GAJJS) intends to address by the implementation of Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) in its JJS facilities. This proposal aims to support and study the GAJJS' pilot implementation of DBT at its facilities using a mixed-methods cross-over design involving a three-phase clinical trial assessing the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary effectiveness of DBT-A adapted for youth in the GAJJS. By the end of the proposed project, the investigators will have (1) established a research team to continue researching SITB interventions in the GAJJS, (2) developed protocols for implementing and evaluating DBT-A adapted for the JJS delivered in person and via telehealth, and (3) preliminary data on the feasibility, acceptability, and effectiveness of DBT-A adapted for the JJS.

The primary aim of this grant is to conduct pilot testing on a novel personalized mobile intervention for suicide - Mobile Application to Prevent Suicide (MAPS) - and to establish feasibility, acceptability, safety, and primary outcomes (i.e., suicidal ideation and behavior; re-hospitalization).