Ann Intern Med

Integrated suicide prevention program shows promise in lowering suicide attempt rates

October 2, 2024

Integrating population-based suicide care (SC) with a substance use program led to a 25% decrease in suicide attempts within 90 days following primary care visits.

Study details

Conducted across 19 primary care practices in a large Washington State healthcare system, the study involved adult patients (≥18 years) with visits from January 2015 to July 2018. Interventions included practice facilitators, EMR clinical decision support, and performance monitoring to implement depression screening, suicide risk assessment, and safety planning, with outcomes measured using EMR and insurance claims data to compare usual care (UC) and SC periods.

Results

• During UC period: 255,789 patients made 953,402 primary care visits. During SC period: 228,255 patients made 615,511 visits.
• Safety planning rate was higher in the SC group than in the UC group (38.3 vs. 32.8 per 10,000 patients; rate difference, 5.5 [95% CI, 2.3 to 8.7]).
• Suicide attempts within 90 days were lower in the SC group than in the UC group (4.5 vs. 6.0 per 10,000 patients; rate difference, -1.5 [CI, -2.6 to -0.4]).

Source:

Angerhofer Richards J, et al. (2024, October 1). Ann Intern Med. Effectiveness of Integrating Suicide Care in Primary Care : Secondary Analysis of a Stepped-Wedge, Cluster Randomized Implementation Trial. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39348695/