Developing an Intervention to Promote Lethal Means Safety in Suicidal Adolescents

NCT ID: NCT05423483

Last Updated: 2025-03-03

Study Results

Results pending

The study team has not published outcome measurements, participant flow, or safety data for this trial yet. Check back later for updates.

Basic Information

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Recruitment Status

COMPLETED

Clinical Phase

PHASE2

Total Enrollment

61 participants

Study Classification

INTERVENTIONAL

Study Start Date

2022-09-08

Study Completion Date

2024-07-19

Brief Summary

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Study Objective: to develop a phone-based intervention to aid parents of suicidal adolescents to adhere to lethal means safety.

Lethal means counseling is the practice of educating patients and their families about limiting access to items that can be used to attempt suicide. Though lethal means counseling is standard practice in treating suicidal patients, there is little experimental literature related to its utilization across different providers and its efficacy. Further, there is a significant gap in the literature on lethal means counseling as it relates to adolescents. The proposed project will investigate a novel text message-based intervention aimed to promote lethal means safety.

Detailed Description

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Participants will be adolescents (age 12-17) who are currently enrolled in the SPARC IOP for a recent suicide attempt or significant suicidal ideation with a plan or intent and their parents or legal guardians. SPARC clinical staff will identify patients and parents who would be eligible based on inclusion/exclusion criteria provided to them. If the family is interested, the study staff will be on hand to present the study and collect informed assent from patients and consent from parent(s).

Investigators will enroll up to 120 pairs of parents and teens receiving care at the SPARC clinic. Investigators will utilize a Children's Health HIPAA compliant texting services to send prompts to the parents of the teens. Phase I of the study was approved in STU-2020-0100 in which the team developed interviews and data collection guides. In Phase II, approved in STU-2021-0658, the team is conducting pilot testing of the intervention to determine if parents find it useful. In this study, Phase III, investigators will randomize the families into two groups: the first being the treatment as usual (TAU) group (N = 60) and the second being the intervention group (N = 60). Parents and guardians in the control group will not receive the text-based intervention. In the intervention group, parents of teens currently enrolled in the SPARC program will enroll in and receive text-based reminders (safety prompts and questionnaire) to adhere to lethal means safety practices twice a week, serving as an intervention to increase adherence to lethal means safety. Data will be collected at 4 time points: SPARC intake, SPARC discharge, 1 month following SPARC discharge, and 6 month following SPARC discharge. At 1-month and 6-month follow up, parents will complete Client Satisfaction Questionnaire regarding satisfaction with the intervention, a brief measure of family functioning, and a brief measure of parental-self efficacy in the context of their child's suicidality. Additionally, at 1-month and 6-month follow up, adolescents will complete questionnaires regarding their access to lethal means in the time frame and measures of suicidality and symptomatology. All 1-month and 6-month questionnaires will be completed by families digitally or over the phone.

Conditions

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Suicide

Study Design

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Allocation Method

RANDOMIZED

Intervention Model

PARALLEL

Primary Study Purpose

PREVENTION

Blinding Strategy

SINGLE

Outcome Assessors

Study Groups

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Text Message Intervention

Parents in the intervention arm will receive text message reminders to restrict lethal means for 6 months.

Group Type EXPERIMENTAL

Safe Home Text Message Reminders

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

Text messages sent 2x a week with reminders to keep lethal means restricted and surveys of lethal means practices that serve as a prompt to adhere to suggested restriction measures.

Treatment as Usual

Parents in the treatment as usual group will not receive the text message intervention.

Group Type NO_INTERVENTION

No interventions assigned to this group

Interventions

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Safe Home Text Message Reminders

Text messages sent 2x a week with reminders to keep lethal means restricted and surveys of lethal means practices that serve as a prompt to adhere to suggested restriction measures.

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

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Inclusion Criteria

* Proficiency in spoken and written English
* Own cell phone that has internet capabilities
* Adolescent participants are patient's at Children's Health SPARC IOP (ages 12-17)
* Adult participants are parents and/or legal guardians of adolescent participants (ages 18+)

Exclusion Criteria

* Non-English speaking
Minimum Eligible Age

12 Years

Maximum Eligible Age

100 Years

Eligible Sex

ALL

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Sponsors

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University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center

OTHER

Sponsor Role lead

Responsible Party

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Beth Kennard

Professor of Psychiatry

Responsibility Role PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Locations

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Children's Health

Dallas, Texas, United States

Site Status

Countries

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United States

Other Identifiers

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STU-2022-0396

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id

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