Therapeutic interventions lead to fewer suicide attempts in adolescents, research finds

Therapeutic intervention in adolescents with self-harming behaviour does not lead to a reduced risk of future death, new Keele University-led research suggests.
But researchers claim for the first time to have found that therapeutic interventions – including drug and talking treatments – did result in fewer suicide attempts in adolescents.
The researchers reviewed data from 3,470 adolescents aged up to 18 years old, with their findings published in JCPP Advances.
Dr Faraz Mughal, a GP and NIHR Doctoral Fellow at Keele University, who led the study, said: "Self-harm in adolescents is an international concern. Evidence highlights that therapeutic intervention, such as cognitive behaviour therapy informed treatments, after self-harm leads to reduced self-harm repetition. However, there is no prior literature about the effects of therapeutic intervention on future mortality in adolescents.
"Therapeutic interventions to reduce self-harm behaviours are critical given their close association with suicide and impact on adolescents, families, and health systems. We found no impact of therapeutic interventions on mortality in adolescents, but we identified they led to less episodes of suicide attempts and confirmed past findings of reduced individual self-harm repetition.
"These findings highlight the need for enhanced provision of therapeutic intervention in mental health services."
A recent national study indicated that more than half of young people who die by suicide have a history of self-harm. Adolescents who have previously self-harmed are nine times more likely to die from unnatural causes. Suicide is the second leading cause of death among 15-29-year-olds and the third leading cause of death in 15–19-year-olds globally.
Dennis Ougrin, Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Global Mental Health at Queen Mary University of London, and a co-author on the study, said: "Self-harm in young people is one of the strongest known predictors of suicide. Therapeutic interventions such as dialectical behaviour therapy reduce self-harm and attempted suicide in young people, but there is no, as of now, evidence that they reduce mortality, although the numbers are too small to reach firm conclusions.
"We urge all researchers who do treatment studies in self-harm to arrange long-term follow-ups of their participants to determine if therapeutic interventions might have an impact on mortality in the long term."
If you have been affected by any of these issues, you can contact the Samaritans.
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