Citation

De Jaegere E, van Landschoot R, Van Heeringen K, van Spijker BAJ, Kerkhof AJFM, Mokkenstorm JK, Portzky G. Behav. Res. Ther. 2019; 119: e103406.

Affiliation

Flemish Centre of Expertise in Suicide Prevention, Ghent University, Corneel Heymanslaan 10, entr. 17, 9000, Ghent, Belgium.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.brat.2019.05.003

PMID

31176889

Abstract

Suicide is a major public health issue, and treatment of suicidal thoughts may contribute to its prevention. Provision of online treatment of suicidal ideation may reduce barriers that suicidal individuals experience in face-to-face treatment. We therefore aimed at evaluating the effectiveness of a web-based intervention targeting a reduction of suicidal ideation. We carried out a two-arm, parallel-design, randomised controlled trial in the general population in Flanders (Belgium) (registered as NCT03209544). Participants who were 18 years or older and experienced suicidal ideation were included. The intervention group (n = 365) received access to the unguided web-based intervention, and the control group (n = 359) was placed on a waitlist. Assessments were carried out at baseline and at 6 and 12 weeks. Participants reported high levels of suicidal ideation, depression, hopelessness, worrying, and anxiety at baseline. Compared to the control group, participants in the intervention group experienced a significant decline in suicidal ideation, depression, hopelessness, worrying, and anxiety both at post-test and at follow-up. An important limitation of the study was a high dropout rate, in particular in the intervention group. Our findings suggest that the online self-help intervention was more effective in reducing suicidal ideation and suicide-related symptoms than a waitlist control in a severely affected population. It can help in filling the gap between crisis help and face-to-face treatment.

Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Language: en

Keywords

Online therapy; Randomised controlled trial; Self-help; Suicidal ideation; Suicide