Psychotherapy for Suicide Prevention

A wide variety of psychotherapeutic interventions was found to be useful for the prevention of suicide. The aim of this chapter was to provide an updated and complete overview of all these interventions, with a description of each one and a summary of the evidence of their efficacy/effectiveness in suicide prevention. We included and described Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) for Suicide Prevention (in particular Cognitive Therapy for Suicide Prevention and Brief CBT for Suicide Prevention), Problem Solving Therapy, Problem Adaptation Therapy, Psychodynamic Therapies (Mentalization-Based Treatment, Interpersonal Psychotherapy, Transference-Focused Psychotherapy, and Attachment-Based Family Therapy), Dialectical Behavior Therapy, Schema-Focused Therapy, Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy, Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, and Complicated Grief Therapy. Furthermore, we considered brief interventions found to be promising: Collaborative Assessment and Management of Suicidality, Teachable Moment Brief Intervention, Motivational Interviewing, and Attempted Suicide Short Intervention Program. Finally, we included Internet-Based-CBT. As shown, all these therapies have some evidence of efficacy/effectiveness in suicide prevention. The key challenge for the future, however, is to investigate single components of the treatments targeting specific types of patients.