NCT04829682

Testing the Efficacy of ACT for Life

ENROLLING BY INVITATION NA Last updated 14 April 2026

What this trial tests

NA trial testing ACT for Life in Suicide in 278 participants. Enrolling by invitation.

Timeline

1 October 2022

Primary endpoint
31 December 2026

31 March 2027

Quick facts

Lead sponsor	VA Office of Research and Development
Phase	NA
Status	ENROLLING BY INVITATION
Study type	INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation	randomized
Design	parallel
Masking	quadruple
Primary purpose	treatment
Enrollment	278
Start date	1 October 2022
Primary completion	31 December 2026
Estimated completion	31 March 2027
Sites	2 locations across United States

Drugs / interventions tested

• ACT for Life
• Present Centered Therapy

Conditions studied

• Suicide — all drugs for Suicide →

Sponsor

VA Office of Research and Development — full company profile →

Who can join

Adults 18 to 89, any sex, with Suicide. Patients with the condition only — healthy volunteers not accepted.

Sponsor's own description

Psychiatric hospitalization is a critical opportunity to provide treatment to reduce the risk of suicide and lay the groundwork for functional recovery. In fact, the period following psychiatric hospitalization presents the greatest risk of death by suicide for Veterans. Despite psychiatric hospitalization being a vital time for intervention, there are no suicide-specific evidence-based psychotherapies (EBPs) that can be feasibly delivered during a typical VHA inpatient stay. Importantly, suicide-specific inpatient interventions are primarily focused on reducing the reoccurrence of suicidal behavior and have limited or no focus on directly targeting other aspects of functional recovery. Preventing suicide during a crisis is only a short-term solution if we fail to assist patients in building a life they deem worth living.

The investigators' research over the past several years has been focused on addressing this gap and overcoming barriers to implementing psychosocial interventions in an inpatient setting. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is a psychosocial intervention well suited to both preventing suicide and enhancing functioning, but the investigators were not aware of any ACT-based treatment protocols designed to specifically target suicide risk. The investigators consulted with leading ACT clinicians and researchers to develop and manualize "ACT for Life", a brief, transdiagnostic, recovery-oriented, inpatient, intervention for Veterans hospitalized due to suicide risk. The individual intervention involves 3 to 6 inpatient sessions and 1 to 4 outpatient sessions focused on skills generalization and treatment engagement. The investigators conducted a randomized controlled pilot study evaluating the acceptability of ACT for Life and the feasibility of the planned design for the proposed randomized controlled efficacy trial. Results of this rigorous pilot study support the acceptability and feasibility of ACT for Life. Nearly all Veterans reported that they believed they benefitted from ACT for Life. Preliminary outcomes suggest that ACT for Life may improve functioning and reduce suicidal behavior following hospitalization due to suicide risk. However, a full-scale clinical trial will be necessary to definitively evaluate the efficacy of ACT for Life. To accomplish this goal, the investigators are proposing to conduct a randomized controlled trial of ACT for Life versus Present Centered Therapy in 278 Veterans hospitalized for suicide risk to examine outcomes of suicidal behavior and changes in functioning over a one-year period following psychiatric hospitalization. The specific aims of this study are to determine the efficacy of ACT for Life for preventing suicidal behavior and maximizing functional recovery, and to examine candidate ACT for Life treatment mechanisms. Participants will complete assessments prior to treatment, before discharge from the inpatient unit, and at one-, three-, six-, and twelve-months following discharge. The proposed randomized controlled trial of ACT for Life has the potential to fill the VHA's need for empirically-supported inpatient interventions that can be delivered during a typical inpatient stay, are recovery oriented, and prevent future suicidal behavior.

Publications & conference data

No peer-reviewed publications indexed yet for this trial.