Suicidal? Get a Postcard. The New JCP Paper on Suicide Prevention. Also, Ketamine & Inpatients
About Us, Divisions & Programs, Education, Faculty & Staff, News & Events, Research
By
David Gratzer
"Can we do better at suicide prevention?
In recent years, several studies have tried brief contact interventions – that is, interventions aimed at maintaining a post-discharge connection – reporting success. These interventions have been relatively simple, such as handwritten postcards or phone calls for people post-attempt.
In this week’s selection, we look at a new paper from The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry. Involving 23 emergency departments and crisis centres in France, the authors pulled together different interventions, coming up with an algorithm offering patients care informed by the best evidence. So some patients received calls, but others were given crisis cards.
It’s an ambitious project. Did it work? The results weren’t statistically significant.
Postcards: colourful and pretty – and life-saving?
We consider this paper, the negative result, and ask: what does this say about suicide prevention? And then, looking at the evolving literature on suicide, we briefly consider a paper written by Sunnybook’s Mark Sinyor that uses IV ketamine for suicidal thoughts."
