NCT05045677

Digital Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (d-DBT) Skills for Acute Suicidality in Psychiatric Inpatients

Completed NA Last updated 14 September 2023

What this trial tests

NA trial testing digital DBT skills intervention in Suicidal Ideation in 42 participants. Completed in 1 November 2022.

Timeline

1 April 2022

Primary endpoint
1 November 2022

1 November 2022

Quick facts

Lead sponsor	Centre for Addiction and Mental Health
Phase	NA
Status	Completed
Study type	INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation	randomized
Design	parallel
Masking	triple
Primary purpose	treatment
Enrollment	42
Start date	1 April 2022
Primary completion	1 November 2022
Estimated completion	1 November 2022
Sites	1 location across Canada

Drugs / interventions tested

• digital DBT skills intervention
• Standard Care — full drug profile →

Conditions studied

• Suicidal Ideation — all drugs for Suicidal Ideation →

Sponsor

Centre for Addiction and Mental Health — full company profile →

Who can join

18 and older, any sex, with Suicidal Ideation. Patients with the condition only — healthy volunteers not accepted.

Sponsor's own description

Suicidality (ideation about taking one's life, suicide plans, and attempts) is a major public health concern in Ontario and worldwide. Psychiatric inpatients with suicidality represent a group that is high-risk for subsequent suicide. Current standard-care for suicidal psychiatric inpatients focuses on containment of risk and indirect treatment of suicidality by treating any underlying mental disorder. Though there is evidence that addressing suicidality directly is more effective than an indirect approach, there are limited evidence based treatments that target suicidality. Furthermore, there are few high-quality studies that have included inpatients. Psychotherapeutic interventions are under-utilized for inpatients and COVID-19 has further widened this gap given attempts by hospitals to reduce face-to-face contact with patients. Digital psychotherapy interventions have the ability to bridge this gap given their lower cost, ease of dissemination, acceptability by patients, and effectiveness. To our knowledge, there are no studies that have assessed the feasibility, acceptability and effectiveness of digital interventions for suicidal inpatients. Our study is a feasibility trial of a previously studied digital Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (d-DBT) skills intervention in suicidal psychiatric inpatients.

The study is a two arm randomized parallel group-controlled trial, 6-10 day, flexible timeline, randomized feasibility trial of a d-DBT skills intervention added to standard care for patients admitted to psychiatric inpatient units with suicidality. There will be 20 patients who will receive the intervention in addition to standard care and 20 patients who will receive standard care alone. There will also be a 4 week follow-up after discharge from hospital.

Participants will be admitted for psychiatric care at the Complex and Critical Care Units, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), Toronto.

Publications & conference data

1 peer-reviewed publication reference this trial (live from Europe PMC):

1. A Digital Dialectical Behaviour Therapy Intervention for Acute Suicidality in Psychiatric Inpatients: A Feasibility Randomised Controlled Study: Intervention numérique en thérapie comportementale dialectique en cas de suicidabilité aiguë de patients hospitalisés en psychiatrie :
   Jones BDM, Kittur ME, Mak MSB, Wang W, et al · · 2025 · cited 3× · PMID 40390509 · DOI 10.1177/07067437251337607