Pilot Study of a Brief Intervention for Medically Hospitalized Suicide Attempt Survivors

One-hundred participants will be recruited from a medical/surgical floor or inpatient psychiatry unit at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. The PI, other Attending Psychiatrists, Psychiatry Resident Physicians, Clinical Psychology Trainees, Psychiatric Nurse Practitioners, Psychiatric Social Workers, and Psychiatric Nurse Case Managers will serve as study therapists. A member from the Vanderbilt University research team will obtain informed consent for the participants and then administer the baseline assessment battery. Patients will then be randomized to either (1) a group receiving care as usual plus an experimental intervention targeting suicidal thoughts and behaviors or to (2) a group receiving care as usual. Patients randomized to the experimental group will receive the intervention prior to discharge from the medical center, most likely on the same day as the baseline assessment battery. Patients receiving the experimental intervention will then be asked to complete a brief post-intervention client satisfaction survey. All study participants will then complete telephone follow-up assessments at 1, 3, and 12 months. The intervention will consist of no more than 90 minutes of 1:1 interaction with a study clinician. The baseline assessment battery will take approximately 30 minutes, the post-intervention measures will take approximately 10 minutes, and the 1-, 3-, and 12-month assessment batteries will take approximately 30 minutes. Maximum length of time in the study is approximately 3.75 hours.