Therapy targets ICU ‘teachable moment’ of suicide-attempt survivors

Further small-scale studies of the TMBI are now underway at two U.S. centers, and Dr. O’Connor said that a larger-scale test of the approach is now appropriate. One of the current limiting factors in dissemination is the training needed to perform a TMBI. One way to better leverage trained therapists might be to have the intervention occur remotely through telemedicine, with the patient encounter happening on a hand-held device.

The evidence collected so far on the TMBI has not yet proven its efficacy, Dr. O’Connor stressed. “We need to see to what degree this makes a difference. But there is clearly need for more engagement” with patients when they are in the ICU immediately after a suicide attempt. “Maybe it’s not the intervention, but just having someone being kind to the patient and sitting with them,” he suggested.

mzoler@frontlinemedcom.com

SOURCE: O’Connor S et al. American Association of Suicidology annual conference.