Mental Health

Talk Therapy Cuts Suicide Rates

By Christine Hsu | Update Date: Nov 24, 2014 07:47 PM EST

Talk therapy has been linked to a 25 percent reduction in repeat suicide attempts and death by suicide, according to a new study.

The goal of the latest study, which analyzed data of more than 65,000 people in Denmark who attempted suicide between 1992 and 2010, was to determine the effectiveness of talk-focused suicide prevention.

Researchers discovered long-term benefits talk therapy sessions. The findings revealed that were 26 percent fewer suicides in the group that received talk therapy compared to the group that did not.

"We know that people who have attempted suicide are a high-risk population and that we need to help them. However, we did not know what would be effective in terms of treatment," lead researcher Annette Erlangsen, DPH, an adjunct associate professor in the Department of Mental Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said in a news release. "Now we have evidence that psychosocial treatment - which provides support, not medication - is able to prevent suicide in a group at high risk of dying by suicide."

Erlangsen and her team found that participants who received therapy were 27 percent less likely to attempt suicide again, and 38 percent less likely to die of any cause after one year. The study also revealed that there were 26 percent fewer suicides in the talk therapy group five years after therapy.

"Our findings provide a solid basis for recommending that this type of therapy be considered for populations at risk for suicide," co-author Elizabeth A. Stuart, PhD, an associate professor in the Bloomberg School's Department of Mental Health, said in a statement.

The findings were published Nov. 24 in the journal Lancet Psychiatry.

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