Future oriented group training for suicidal patients: a clinical trial (WC2006-060)

Background

Starting date: 01/01/2006

Research shows that hopelessness contributes to suicidality. Especially lack of positive future expectancies (as part of hopelessness) appears to be an important factor in developing suicidal ideations and behavior (MacLeod, Rose & Williams, 1993). Different forms of treatment for underlying mechanisms in suicidality have been developed and tested, but research in the United States (Kessler, Berglund, Borges, Nock Wang, 2005) showed that we can hardly observe consistent decrease in suicidal thoughts, plans, gestures or attempts after treatment. Suicidality on an individual level decreases after some forms of treatment, but the overall picture is not much different from that of two decades ago. Studying the effects of treatment is difficult, becasue suicide is rather unusual. Suicide has a low prevalence in the general population (0.01%), but suicide ideation is remarkably common (Gaynes, West, Ford, Frame, Klein & Lohr, 2004). We therefore choose to develop a program for this group of people. Suicide ideations precedes suicide most of the time and we expect this aspect to be better treatable and measurable, in an earlier stage of the suicidal process.