Efficacy of a short message service brief contact intervention (SMS-SOS) in reducing repetition of hospital-treated self-harm: randomised controlled trial.
Self-harm
aftercare
out-patient treatment
prevention
randomised controlled trial
Journal
The British journal of psychiatry : the journal of mental science
ISSN: 1472-1465
Titre abrégé: Br J Psychiatry
Pays: England
ID NLM: 0342367
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
12 Dec 2023
12 Dec 2023
Historique:
medline:
12
12
2023
pubmed:
12
12
2023
entrez:
12
12
2023
Statut:
aheadofprint
Résumé
Hospital-treated self-harm is common and costly, and is associated with repeated self-harm and suicide. To investigate the effectiveness of a brief contact intervention delivered via short message service (SMS) text messages in reducing hospital-treated self-harm re-presentations in three hospitals in Sydney (2017-2019), Australia. Trial registration number: ACTRN12617000607370. A randomised controlled trial with parallel arms allocated 804 participants presenting with self-harm, stratified by previous self-harm, to a control condition of treatment as usual (TAU) ( The event rate for self-harm repetition was lower for the SMS compared with TAU group at 6 months (IRR = 0.79, 95% CI 0.61-1.01), 12 months (IRR = 0.78, 95% CI 0.64-0.95) and 24 months (IRR = 0.78, 95% CI 0.66-0.91). There was no difference between the SMS and TAU groups in the time to first repeat self-harm event over 24 months (HR = 0.96, 95% CI 0.72-1.26). There were four suicides in the TAU group and none in the SMS group. The 22% reduction in repetition of hospital-treated self-harm was clinically meaningful. SMS text messages are an inexpensive, scalable and universal intervention that can be used in hospital-treated self-harm populations but further work is needed to establish efficacy and cost-effectiveness across settings.
Sections du résumé
BACKGROUND
BACKGROUND
Hospital-treated self-harm is common and costly, and is associated with repeated self-harm and suicide.
AIMS
OBJECTIVE
To investigate the effectiveness of a brief contact intervention delivered via short message service (SMS) text messages in reducing hospital-treated self-harm re-presentations in three hospitals in Sydney (2017-2019), Australia. Trial registration number: ACTRN12617000607370.
METHOD
METHODS
A randomised controlled trial with parallel arms allocated 804 participants presenting with self-harm, stratified by previous self-harm, to a control condition of treatment as usual (TAU) (
RESULTS
RESULTS
The event rate for self-harm repetition was lower for the SMS compared with TAU group at 6 months (IRR = 0.79, 95% CI 0.61-1.01), 12 months (IRR = 0.78, 95% CI 0.64-0.95) and 24 months (IRR = 0.78, 95% CI 0.66-0.91). There was no difference between the SMS and TAU groups in the time to first repeat self-harm event over 24 months (HR = 0.96, 95% CI 0.72-1.26). There were four suicides in the TAU group and none in the SMS group.
CONCLUSIONS
CONCLUSIONS
The 22% reduction in repetition of hospital-treated self-harm was clinically meaningful. SMS text messages are an inexpensive, scalable and universal intervention that can be used in hospital-treated self-harm populations but further work is needed to establish efficacy and cost-effectiveness across settings.
Identifiants
pubmed: 38083861
doi: 10.1192/bjp.2023.152
pii: S0007125023001526
doi:
Types de publication
Journal Article
Langues
eng
Sous-ensembles de citation
IM