Effect of Offering Care Management or Online Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills Training vs Usual Care on Self-harm Among Adult Outpatients With Suicidal Ideation A Randomized Clinical Trial

This randomized trial assesses the effect of offering care management or online dialectical behavior therapy skills training vs usual care on risk of self-harm among adult outpatients with suicidal ideation. Question Can low-intensity outreach programs, based on effective clinical interventions but delivered primarily online, prevent self-harm or suicidal behavior among outpatients reporting frequent suicidal ideation? Findings In this pragmatic randomized clinical trial that included 18 882 outpatients with frequent suicidal ideation, the percentage with nonfatal or fatal self-harm over 18 months was 3.3% among those offered care management, 3.9% among those offered online dialectical behavior therapy skills training, and 3.1% among those receiving usual care, respectively. Compared with usual care, the risk of self-harm was not significantly different for care management but was significantly increased for those offered skills training. Meaning Compared with usual care, offering care management did not significantly reduce the risk of self-harm, and offering brief online dialectical behavior therapy skills training increased the risk of self-harm among at-risk adults. IMPORTANCE People at risk of self-harm or suicidal behavior can be accurately identified, but effective prevention will require effective scalable interventions. OBJECTIVE To compare 2 low-intensity outreach programs with usual care for prevention of suicidal behavior among outpatients who report recent frequent suicidal thoughts. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS Pragmatic randomized clinical trial including outpatients reporting frequent suicidal thoughts identified using routine Patient Health Questionnaire depression screening at 4 US integrated health systems. A total of 18 882 patients were randomized between March 2015 and September 2018, and ascertainment of outcomes continued through March 2020. INTERVENTIONS Patients were randomized to a care management intervention (n = 6230) that included systematic outreach and care, a skills training intervention (n = 6227) that introduced 4 dialectical behavior therapy skills (mindfulness, mindfulness of current emotion, opposite action, and paced breathing), or usual care (n = 6187). Interventions, lasting up to 12 months, were delivered primarily through electronic health record online messaging and were intended to supplement ongoing mental health care. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES The primary outcome was time to first nonfatal or fatal self-harm. Nonfatal self-harm was ascertained from health system records, and fatal self-harm was ascertained from state mortality data. Secondary outcomes included more severe self-harm (leading to death or hospitalization) and a broader definition of self-harm (selected injuries and poisonings not originally coded as self-harm). RESULTS A total of 18 644 patients (9009 [48%] aged 45 years or older; 12 543 [67%] female; 9222 [50%] from mental health specialty clinics and the remainder from primary care) contributed at least 1 day of follow-up data and were included in analyses. Thirty-one percent of participants offered care management and 39% offered skills training actively engaged in intervention programs. A total of 540 participants had a self-harm event (including 45 deaths attributed to self-harm and 495 nonfatal self-harm events) over 18 months following randomization: 172 (3.27%) in care management, 206 (3.92%) in skills training, and 162 (3.27%) in usual care. Risk of fatal or nonfatal self-harm over 18 months did not differ significantly between the care management and usual care groups (hazard ratio [HR], 1.07; 97.5% CI, 0.84-1.37) but was significantly higher in the skills training group than in usual care (HR, 1.29; 97.5% CI, 1.02-1.64). For severe self-harm, care management vs usual care had an HR of 1.03 (97.5% CI, 0.71-1.51); skills training vs usual care had an HR of 1.34 (97.5% CI, 0.94-1.91). For the broader self-harm definition, care management vs usual care had an HR of 1.10 (97.5% CI, 0.92-1.33); skills training vs usual care had an HR of 1.17 (97.5% CI, 0.97-1.41). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE Among adult outpatients with frequent suicidal ideation, offering care management did not significantly reduce risk of self-harm, and offering brief dialectical behavior therapy skills training significantly increased risk of self-harm, compared with usual care. These findings do not support implementation of the programs tested in this study.