Treatment of suicide ideators: a problem-solving approach

Abstract

The present study compares two types of treatments designed to reduce suicidal ideations: social problem-solving therapy and supportive therapy. Social problem-solving therapy is based on research indicating that suicidal individuals have deficits in problem-solving skills in general and in interpersonal problem-solving skills, in particular. Supportive therapy was chosen as a comparative treatment to control for nonspecific effects of problem-solving therapy and to provide an ethical alternative treatment.

The results indicated that problem-solving therapy was more effective than supportive therapy for reducing depression and for improving interpersonal problem-solving self-efficacy at posttest. At 3 month follow-up there continued to be differences between the groups in depression, but not in problem-solving self-efficacy. In addition, at follow-up problem-solving therapy was more effective than supportive therapy for reducing hopelessness and loneliness. Although there were no differences between the groups on severity of suicidal ideations, within group analyses revealed that problem-solving therapy significantly reduced severity of ideations over time.

The findings suggest that social problem-solving therapy is a more effective treatment than supportive therapy for reducing depression, hopelessness, and loneliness of suicidal individuals. This may be due to social problem-solving deficits being a key problem for suicidal individuals. Although there are several limitations to the study, such as small sample sizes, it provides an example of treatment research with suicidal individuals. Similar studies would be useful to further evaluate empirically-based treatments for suicidal individuals.