Talking Therapies Shown to Reduce Suicide Risk

When it comes to illnesses like depression, many people dismiss the idea of talking therapies as something that simply doesn’t work. But according to a new study coming out of the US, talk-therapy sessions can actually reduce the risk of suicide in people who have previously attempted to take their own life.

The team from John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Maryland studied information pertaining to around 65,000 people in Denmark who had previously attempted suicide. From this group, the researchers tracked more than 23,000 individuals from this group for around 20 years.

The study, published in Lancet Psychiatry , involved 5,678 participants who volunteered to undergo six to 10 talk-therapy sessions at suicide prevention clinics around Denmark.

The idea of this form of therapy is to give people the opportunity to talk about their troubles. This is done with the help of a trained professional who also allows the patient to explore otherwise difficult feelings. Ultimately, it allows the patient to understand that they will always have someone to talk to and talks things through with.

The outcomes of the volunteers were compared with those of 17,000 people who had opted out of further treatment.

During the first year, those receiving counselling were found to be 27% less likely to attempt the act of self-harm again.

Five years down the line, this same group saw 26% fewer attempted self-harm incidents.

After 10 years, the trend continued with the positive effects of talk-therapy still evident in the group.

Study co-author Dr Elizabeth Stuart is from the university’s department of mental health. She explained that following up the study participants on such a long-term scale allowed researched to gather more accurate information on which treatments for the prevention of suicide worked best.

“Our findings provide a solid basis for recommending that this type of therapy be considered for populations at risk from suicide,” Dr Stuart declared.

Lead researcher Dr Annette Erlangsen agreed, explaining that people who had tried to commit suicide once were at high-risk of attempting to do so again, and something needs to be done to help these people.

“We did not know what would be effective in terms of treatment,” Dr Erlangsen explained. “Now we have evidence that psychosocial treatment (which provides support, not medication) is able to prevent suicide in a group at high-risk.”

The researchers still plan to gather as much more information as they can on the specific types of talking therapies and which ones work best. However, they agree that providing somewhere safe and confidential for the patient to talk was essential for the success of such therapy sessions. Ultimately, the study results just go to show that talking therapies might not be something to be dismissed so easily, and could provide the sort of long-term help that doesn't come from taking medication.