Harry Potter as a Novel Educational Paradigm to Improve Mental Wellness in Children: A Prospective...
Suicidal IdeationSuicidal and Self-injurious Behavior1 moreSchool-based mental health literacy interventions have been shown to reduce and/or prevent suicidal ideation and attempts. Most programs to date include an adapted version of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) - the gold standard treatment for youth and adult mood and anxiety disorders. CBT teaches youth about the relationship between their thoughts, feelings, and behaviours, and provides strategies for managing distress. However, there is no established standard mental health literacy curriculum in Ontario. The investigators developed a school-based mental health literacy program that uses the third book in the Harry Potter series ('Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban') to teach students how to cope with distress through CBT skills. This study will determine whether the Harry Potter-based mental health literacy curriculum diminishes suicidality in students. The study will also determine whether the curriculum decreases depression and anxiety symptoms and improves well-being. The 3-month intervention is a manual-based curriculum which teaches CBT skills in English class. The website includes video and text-based onboarding to train teachers on all the lessons. Youth complete online exercises for each unit and teachers follow a manual with checklists to preserve high fidelity and standardization of core learning. Participating classes will be randomized in 1:1 fashion to receive the curriculum in the fall (~Oct-Dec) or the winter (~Feb-Apr). The study will use a stepped-wedge design to introduce the curriculum to classes sequentially testing whether students who receive it in fall will improve at mid-year and those in winter will catch up by year-end. The winter group is included as a "maturational" control to account for changes over the school year that are independent of the intervention and so that order effects of curriculum delivery can be tested. For this design, questionnaires will be administered four times throughout the school year (once before and after each semester), and once more the following year to measure duration of response. At each timepoint, subjects will complete validated questionnaires about suicide attempts and self-harm, anxiety, depression, well-being, and health services usage. Students may also choose to participate in focus groups to collect qualitative data on their experience with the curriculum. With additional consent (Ontario youth only), we will also collect aggregate lists of the Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP) numbers for participating students. These will be provided to the Institute of Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES) who will identify sex, age and pre-existing healthcare utilization matched controls from regions that do not adopt the curriculum.
Reducing Suicide Risk in Older Veterans Using Problem Solving Therapy
Suicidal IdeationDepressive Disorder2 moreSuicide is a national crisis, especially among older Veterans for whom evidence-based suicide prevention efforts are lacking. This proposal responds to the national priority to develop and improve interventions for suicide prevention, with a focus on at-risk older Veterans. The randomized control trial will compare VA usual care, which is suicide safety planning, with brief Problem Solving Therapy and suicide safety planning. This study uses Problem Solving Therapy because it has support from our pilot data and from secondary data analysis from other studies for reducing late life suicide risk. This treatment also has support for alleviating two key risk factors for late life suicide risk, functional disability and executive dysfunction, and thus this study will examine how older Veterans with varying levels of functional disability and executive functioning respond to treatment to inform future targeted implementation. In accordance with national priorities, existing infrastructure in Problem Solving Training could be expanded to support more rapid VA-wide implementation.
Mobile Interpretation Bias Modification Clinical Trial
Anxiety SensitivitySuicidal IdeationThe Mobile-Interpretation Bias Modification clinical trial aims to examine the efficacy of a brief mobile phone delivered interpretation bias modification to reduce anxiety sensitivity cognitive concerns and suicidal ideation in National Guard Personnel. The investigators propose a randomized controlled trial testing the efficacy, acceptability, and usability of M-IBM with a sample of 114 National Guardsmen with current suicidal ideation and elevated anxiety sensitivity cognitive concerns. Participants will complete assessments, receive assistance on installing M- IBM on their phone, complete an M-IBM intervention session, and complete post-intervention assessments. Baseline measures of psychopathology, and usability/acceptability of M-IBM will be obtained during the initial session. In addition, 1-month, and 3-month follow-ups would be scheduled to examine changes in psychopathology. The investigators hypothesize that those randomized to M-IBM will experience reductions in anxiety sensitivity cognitive concerns, suicidal ideation. In addition participants will find M-IBM acceptable and easy to use.
National Sponsorship Program for Transitioning Service Members
Reintegration DifficultiesHealth2 moreBackground: The United States is undergoing a suicide epidemic for its youngest Veterans (18-to-34-years-old) as their suicide rate has almost doubled since 2001. Veterans are at the highest risk during their first-year post-discharge, thus creating a "deadly gap" for them. In response, the nation has developed strategies that emphasize a preventive, universal and public health approach and embrace the value of community interventions. The three-step theory of suicide suggests that community interventions that reduce pain from reintegration difficulties and promote connectedness for Veterans as they transition to civilian life have the greatest likelihood of success. Recent research shows that the effectiveness of community interventions can be enhanced when augmented by volunteer and certified sponsors (1-on-1) who actively engage with Veterans, as part of the Veterans Affairs' Transitioning Servicemember/Veteran (TSMV) Sponsorship Initiative. Method/Design: The purpose of this trial is to determine how to implement the Sponsorship Initiative in six cities in Texas in collaboration with the US Department of Defense, VA, Texas government, and local stakeholders. Texas is an optimal location for this large-scale implementation as it has the second largest population of Veterans aged 18-to-34-years-old and is home to the largest US military installation, Fort Hood. The first aim is to further determine the effectiveness of the Sponsorship Initiative, as evidenced by measures of proximal variables (reintegration difficulties, health/psychological distress, VA healthcare utilization and connectedness) and distal variables (suicidal ideation and behaviors). The second aim is to determine how best to implement the Sponsorship Initiative in Texas with the intent of future expansion in more states. TSMVs (n=628) will be recruited from military installations six months prior to discharge and prior to moving to target cities. The evaluators are utilizing implementation strategies, such as building community partnerships and external facilitation. Evaluation will be conducted through interviews with TSMVs and periodic reflections with key stakeholders to identify barriers, facilitators, and adaptations. Outcome evaluations will be conducted with TSMVs completing surveys and data collection from working with stakeholders. Discussion: This evaluation will have important implications for the national implementation of community interventions that address the epidemic of TSMV suicide. Aligned with the Evidence Act, it is the first large-scale implementation of an evidence-based practice that conducts a thorough assessment of TSMVs during the "deadly gap".
Development and Feasibility Testing of a Suicide Prevention Intervention for Sexual and Gender Minority...
Psychological DistressSuicidal IdeationThis study aims to develop and test a brief, digital, suicide prevention intervention for sexual and gender minority (SGM) youth who have experienced cyberbullying. Leading up to this phase, the study team completed two prior study aims, focused on identifying perspectives of SGM youth's regarding their experiences with cyberbullying and priorities for an intervention, and a phase in which SGM youth codesigned the study's intervention with the study team. This resulted in the development of study's intervention, Flourish, which leverages a text messaging-based chatbot to reduce suicide risk following cyberbullying among SGM youth through improving distress tolerance, motivation for help-seeking, and social problem-solving. Current Study Aim: Conduct an open trial to assess the feasibility and acceptability of Flourish among cyberbullied SGM youth, ages 12-17 (N=10). Hypotheses: Feasibility will be evidenced by recruitment/retention rates > 80% and use of Flourish among > 70% of SGM youth. At follow-up, adolescents will report improved problem-solving capacity, distress tolerance, and motivation for help-seeking and reduced psychological distress and suicidal ideation compared to baseline.
Nitrous Oxide- Suicidal Ideation
Major Depressive DisorderDepression2 moreMost clinical major depression responds to standard treatments (medication and psychotherapy); however, a significant subset of depressed patients (15-20%) do not respond to these treatments and are referred to as treatment-resistant major depression (TRMD). New treatments for TRMD are needed, and one promising line of research are drugs known as N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) glutamate receptor antagonists. In a recent pilot study, the investigators of this study demonstrated that the NMDA antagonist nitrous oxide is effective in TRMD, reducing depressive symptoms, guilt, and suicidal thinking. To more closely investigate suicidal thinking, this study is designed as a double-blind, randomized, prospective, inpatient trial comparing inhaled nitrous oxide (N2O) plus treatment as usual versus inhaled placebo plus treatment as usual. All unipolar depressed, acutely suicidal inpatients will receive standard treatment for their depression/ suicidal thinking (TAU). Additionally, participants will undergo a maximum of four one hour inhalation sessions as inpatients and 2 booster sessions as outpatients during which they will receive either inhaled nitrous oxide (50% nitrous oxide/50% oxygen = active treatment) or placebo gas (50% nitrogen/50% oxygen). A target total of 50 patients with suicidal ideation and unipolar depression will be enrolled, 25 of whom will be assigned to the TAU control group and 25 of whom will be assigned to the N2O + TAU experimental group.
SmartCriseS - Smartphone Survey of Suicidal Risk
Personal History of a Recent Suicidal CrisisSuicidal Ideation1 moreSleep and appetite disorders as well as social exclusion, have been linked to the emergence of suicidal ideation (SI) and suicide attempts.This study aims to evaluate the relationship between those factors and suicidal ideation and behaviour. To assess those factors an ecological momentary assessment (EMA) desing will be used. EMA will be carried out using 2 applications integrated into the smartphone of participants (Android or iOS), one to make an explicit data collection with questions and another one for the implicit collection of data from mobile sensors. 1044 suicide attempters will be included in three sites and followed for 6 months. Participants will be evaluated at inclusion and at the end of follow-up. The hypothesis is that sleep, appetite and social exclusion factors collected with the smartphone application will be linked to the intensity of death wish, suicidal ideations and suicidal attempts. An auxiliary study will also be led with 300 patients carrying an actimeter for the 30 first days after inclusion. This will help collecting more accurate data on various sleep parameters.
Stepped Approach to Reducing Risk of Suicide in Primary Care
Suicidal IdeationSuicide2 moreSuicide is the second leading cause of death among young people aged 12-17 years in the United States, yet many youth at risk for suicide are not identified or go untreated. Stepped care approaches have been shown to be effective at reducing suicide risk in clinical settings, including primary care. The goal of this hybrid I stepped wedge effectiveness-implementation study is to test the effectiveness of a population-based quality improvement (QI) intervention, entitled STARRS-PC (Stepped Approach to Reducing Risk of Suicide in Primary Care) compared to treatment as usual (TAU), in reducing the risk of suicidal behavior among youth in the pediatric primary care setting. STARRS-PC implements a clinical pathway for youth at elevated risk for suicide in pediatric primary care clinics. Clinical pathways are tools used by health professionals to guide evidence-informed practice. The STARRS-PC pathway consists of three evidence-based suicide clinical care processes: risk detection, assessment and triage, and, if needed, follow-up transitional care. STARRS-PC is guided by the Practical, Robust Implementation, and Sustainability Model (PRISM), which allows for the study of factors that influence effective implementation of the suicide prevention clinical pathway and is focused on scalability. The main questions the study aims to answer are: Will STARRS-PC be more effective than TAU at reducing the rate of suicide attempt at 12 months post-baseline (primary outcome)? Will STARRS-PC be more effective than TAU at reducing suicidal ideation and non-suicidal self-injury, and improving family satisfaction at 12 months post-baseline (secondary outcomes)? What are the barriers and facilitators of effective implementation and sustainability of STARRS-PC?
Suicide Intervention for Alaska Native Youth
Alaska Native Youth Aged 15 - 24Suicide3 moreTwo interventions will be delivered virtually to American Indian/Alaska Native youth who have been hospitalized with suicidal attempt, suicidal ideation, or associated risk behaviors, including alcohol-related injury.
A Study to Evaluate the Safety and Effectiveness of a Digital Therapeutic
SuicideAttempted1 moreThe primary objective of this study is to assess the effectiveness of a digital intervention in reducing suicide attempts.