Suicide Prevention in First Episode Psychosis: the Development of a Randomised Controlled Trial of Cognitive Therapy for Acutely Suicidal Patients With Early Psychosis

To address the risk of suicide among patients with first episode psychosis, a program called LifeSPAN was established within the Early Psychosis Prevention and Intervention Centre in Melbourne. This paper describes a number of suicide prevention strategies developed by the program. 56 suicidal patients with first episode psychosis were randomly assigned to standard clinical care or standard care plus LifeSPAN therapy. 42 patients completed the intervention. Benefits were noted in the treatment group on indirect measures of suicidality, for example, hopelessness. This group also showed a greater average improvement (though not significant) on a measure of suicide ideation. (51 refs.)