Citation

Falcone G, Nardella A, Lamis DA, Erbuto D, Girardi P, Pompili M. World J. Psychiatry 2017; 7(3): 163-176.

Affiliation

Department of Neurosciences, Mental Health and Sensory Organs, Suicide Prevention Center, Sant'Andrea Hospital, Sapienza University of Rome, 00189 Rome, Italy. maurizio.pompili@uniroma1.it.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, Baishideng Publishing Group)

DOI

10.5498/wjp.v7.i3.163

PMID

29043154

PMCID

PMC5632601

Abstract

Suicide is a global public health problem with over one million people dying by suicide each year worldwide. Research efforts have focused on developing and testing novel suicide prevention strategies employing recent technological advances. In order to provide a review regarding the role of new technologies (e.g., postcards/letters, text messages, crisis cards, telephone contacts, online interventions) in suicide prevention, we searched PubMed, ScienceDirect, ResearchGate, and Crisis to identify all papers in English from 1977 to 2016. Our results indicated that brief contact interventions show promise in reducing the number of episodes of repeated self-harm and/or suicide attempts following discharge from the Emergency Department or psychiatric units. Innovative methods of contact (e.g., text messages) are easily implemented by clinicians and received by patients in the period of post discharge and have been shown to be beneficial. However, more research employing randomized clinical trials investigating the potential benefits of these novel suicide prevention methods is warranted. Future researchers should continue improving and testing new technologies in the prevention of suicide.

Language: en

Keywords

Emails; Letters; Postcards; Sms; Suicide; Telephone