Session-Specific Effects on Suicidality in Group Therapy: No Evidence for Contagion.

OBJECTIVE: Explicitly addressing suicidality in group therapy is often avoided due to the fear of contagion effects. However, there is some evidence that this fear is not valid. Therefore, the present study aims at contributing to this question by investigating the session-specific effects of two modules on suicidality that are part of the Metacognitive Training for Depression (D-MCT/S). METHODS: Forty-four patients with depression participated in the two modules on suicidality of the D-MCT/S. Before and after each group session, patients filled out a questionnaire asking for symptoms of suicidality, associated cognitions (e.g., hopelessness), and associated emotions (e.g., anger). Data were analyzed by linear mixed-effect models. RESULTS: Approximately 84% of the patients had experienced lifetime suicidal ideation. No within- or between-session effects were found for the modules on suicidality. Sample size was large enough to find small to medium effects (within-session analyses) and medium to large effects (between-session analyses). CONCLUSION: The modules on suicidality did not specifically change suicidal symptoms or associated cognitions and emotions immediately or by the next session. Most importantly, our results disconfirm evidence on deterioration when suicidality is addressed in a highly structured group setting. Whether the current findings also apply to other forms of group therapies needs to be investigated in future studies. HIGHLIGHTSSession-specific investigations allow a thoroughly examination of an interventionMetacognitive Training for Depression showed no contagion effect on suicidality.

Do implicit measures improve suicide risk prediction? An 18-month prospective study using different tasks.

BACKGROUND: There is accumulating evidence that implicit measures improve the prediction of suicidality within a 6-month follow-up period in psychiatric populations. Building upon these results, we set out to expand the follow-up period and to investigate various implicit methods. METHODS: Seventy-nine inpatients completed the Beck Scale for Suicidal Ideation (BSS) and a range of implicit measures: three implicit association tests (IATs: Death; Self-harm-Me/Others; Self-Harm-Good/Bad) and a subliminal priming task (with separate scores for negative and positive adjectives, each indicating the association between the primes "dying" and "growing"). After 18 months, we reached n = 52 patients and reassessed suicidal ideation, plans, and attempts. RESULTS: In a hierarchical regression, the five implicit task indices were entered after the patient's age, gender, and BSS score at baseline. The implicit scores improved prediction of BSS scores after 18 months compared to prediction based on age, gender, and BSS score at baseline alone. However, none of the implicit measures was associated with suicide plans or attempts during the follow-up period. CONCLUSION: Results suggest that implicit measures can be a useful assessment tool for the prediction of suicidal ideation, even beyond the BSS. However, long-term prediction of suicide plans or attempts using implicit measures seems limited.

Metacognitive Training for Depression: Feasibility, safety and acceptability of two new treatment modules to reduce suicidality.

Recent evidence favours psychological interventions explicitly targeting suicidality; however, group treatments on suicidality are rare and are assumed to have unfavourable effects. We developed two modules specifically addressing suicidality that replace two existing modules in the Metacognitive Training for Depression (D-MCT). The aim of the current study was to examine the feasibility, safety, and acceptability of this intervention (D-MCT/S). Forty-eight inpatients with depression received eight sessions of D-MCT/S over 4 weeks in addition to standard treatment. Patients were assessed before the training, 4 and 8 weeks later regarding suicidality (primary outcome: Beck Suicide Scale [BSS]), hopelessness, depression (e.g. Hamilton Depression Rating Scale [HDRS]), dysfunctional attitudes, and self-esteem. Negative effects of the modules and subjective appraisal were assessed. Suicidality, hopelessness, and depression decreased over time. Whereas the effects on the BSS only reached trend level, a large effect was observed when the suicide item of the HDRS was used. Two of the 46 patients (4%) reported a deterioration in their symptoms, but this was not associated with the D-MCT/S. Negative effects of the general training were rather low, and acceptability was high. In general, patients evaluated the two new modules on suicidality similarly to the established modules. However, both modules were assessed as distressing by 39% of the patients. When we addressed suicidality in the D-MCT/S, we did not observe any contagious effects. In fact, the pilot versions of the two modules on suicidality are promising in terms of feasibility, safety, and acceptability. The results will be used to improve current shortcomings. The trial was registered with the German Clinical Trials Register (#DRKS-ID: DRKS00010543) on 23 August 2016.