Klomek AB, Catalan LH, Apter A. Ultra-brief crisis interpersonal psychotherapy based intervention for suicidal children and adolescents. World J Psychiatr 2021; 11(8): 403-411 [PMID: 34513604 DOI: 10.5498/wjp.v11.i8.403]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Liat Haruvi Catalan, PhD, Director, Depression and Suicide Clinic, Schneider Children’s Medical Center, Kaplan 14, Petach Tikva 49202, Israel. liatcatalan@gmail.com
Research Domain of This Article
Psychology
Article-Type of This Article
Therapeutic and Diagnostic Guidelines
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Psychiatr. Aug 19, 2021; 11(8): 403-411 Published online Aug 19, 2021. doi: 10.5498/wjp.v11.i8.403
Ultra-brief crisis interpersonal psychotherapy based intervention for suicidal children and adolescents
Anat Brunstein Klomek, Liat Haruvi Catalan, Alan Apter
Anat Brunstein Klomek, Baruch Ivcher School of Psychology, Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya 4610101, Israel
Liat Haruvi Catalan, Alan Apter, Depression and Suicide Clinic, Schneider Children’s Medical Center, Petach Tikva 49202, Israel
Alan Apter, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel
Author contributions: Klomek AB wrote the protocol and this article that describes it; Catalan LH contributed equally to this work; she wrote the protocol and the article as well; Apter A conceived the initial idea and was involved in writing the protocol and the article; all authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors certify that they have no affiliations with or involvement in any organization or entity with any financial interest or non-financial interest in the subject matter or materials discussed in this manuscript.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Liat Haruvi Catalan, PhD, Director, Depression and Suicide Clinic, Schneider Children’s Medical Center, Kaplan 14, Petach Tikva 49202, Israel. liatcatalan@gmail.com
Received: May 10, 2021 Peer-review started: May 10, 2021 First decision: June 23, 2021 Revised: July 6, 2021 Accepted: July 15, 2021 Article in press: July 15, 2021 Published online: August 19, 2021 Processing time: 93 Days and 12.9 Hours
Abstract
Suicidal behaviors in adolescence are a major public health concern. The dramatic rise in self-injurious behaviors among adolescents has led to an overwhelming increase in the number of those presenting to the emergency rooms. The intervention described below was constructed on the basis of brief and focused interventions that were found to be effective among suicidal adults using an adaptation of interpersonal psychotherapy for adolescents. The intervention has four main objectives: first, a focused treatment for reducing suicide risk; second, a short and immediate response; third, building a treatment plan based on understanding the emotional distress and interpersonal aspects underlying suicidal behavior; and lastly, to generate hope among adolescents and their parents. The intervention includes intensive five weekly sessions, followed by 3 mo of email follow-up.
Core Tip: Waiting time for treatment for adolescents who are at risk for suicide in Israel is unreasonably long. The purpose of the interpersonal psychotherapy based intervention for suicidal children and adolescents is to allow more children to receive an acute preventive intervention within a reasonable period of time. The initial phase includes building a safety plan, understanding the emotional and interpersonal aspects underlying the suicide risk and formulating a problem area. The middle sessions include learning and practicing emotional, behavioral and interpersonal skills. The termination session includes building a treatment plan for relapse prevention and providing hope.
