Trial reportBulletin of the World Health Organization2008
Effectiveness of brief intervention and contact for suicide attempters: a randomized controlled trial in five countries.
Trial report in Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 2008. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to 5 registered trials, which are not on this map. Cited by 151 papers, 19 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Caring Letters for Military Suicide Prevention: A Randomized Controlled Trial
Phone Call Follow-up After Crisis Centre Presentation With Suicidal Ideation and Behaviours.
Investigations of Psychological Interventions in Suicide Prevention: A Comparison of Brief Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and the Attempted Suicide Short Intervention Program
An Implementation Study of Suicide Risk Management Among Discharged Psychiatric Patients Based on Brief Contact Interventions and Sequential Multiple Assignment Randomized Trial
Esketamine Versus Crisis Response Planning Versus Enhanced Treatment as Usual for Suicide Prevention: A Pragmatic Randomized Trial in a Brazilian Municipality (SAVE)
Who cites it
151 citing papers in PubMed, 19 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Acute-Phase Interventions After Self-Harm for Preventing Suicide and Recurrence: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Acta psychiatrica Scandinavica · 2026Pooled it
- Synchronous remote-based interventions for suicidal behaviour prevention: a systematic review and meta-analyses of clinical trials.BMJ open · 2025Pooled it
- Brief interventions for suicidal ideation in primary care: a systematic review.BMC primary care · 2025Pooled it
- Prevention of Re-attempt Suicide Through Brief Contact Interventions: A Systematic Review, Meta-analysis, and Meta-regression of Randomized Controlled Trials.Journal of prevention (2022) · 2023Pooled it
- Systematic review of suicide prevention studies with data on youth and young adults living in low-income and middle-income countries.BMJ open · 2022Pooled it
- Methods and efficacy of social support interventions in preventing suicide: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Evidence-based mental health · 2022Pooled it
- Psychosocial interventions for self-harm in low-income and middle-income countries: systematic review and theory of change.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2021Pooled it
- Primary-level worker interventions for the care of people living with mental disorders and distress in low- and middle-income countries.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2021Pooled it
- Improving Suicide Prevention Through Evidence-Based Strategies: A Systematic Review.The American journal of psychiatry · 2021Pooled it
- Psychosocial interventions for self-harm in adults.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2021Pooled it
- Suicide during Transition of Care: a Review of Targeted Interventions.The Psychiatric quarterly · 2020Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Effectiveness of brief psychological interventions for suicidal presentations: a systematic review.BMC psychiatry · 2018Pooled it
- Mechanisms of brief contact interventions in clinical populations: a systematic review.BMC psychiatry · 2016Pooled it
- Psychosocial interventions for self-harm in adults.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2016Pooled it
- Deliberate self-harm (and attempted suicide).BMJ clinical evidence · 2015Pooled it
- A systematic review of social factors and suicidal behavior in older adulthood.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2012Pooled it
- Pediatric suicide-related presentations: a systematic review of mental health care in the emergency department.Annals of emergency medicine · 2010Pooled it
- Brazilian Psychiatric Association guidelines for the management of suicidal behavior. Part 2. Screening, intervention, and prevention.Revista brasileira de psiquiatria (Sao Paulo, Brazil : 1999)Pooled it
- Hospital-Based Psychosocial Case Management and Suicide Prevention in South Korea: A Randomized Clinical Trial.JAMA network open · 2026Trial
91 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
12 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveTo determine whether brief intervention and contact is effective in reducing subsequent suicide mortality among suicide attempters in low and middle-income countries.
methodsSuicide attempters (n = 1867) identified by medical staff in the emergency units of eight collaborating hospitals in five culturally different sites (Campinas, Brazil; Chennai, India; Colombo, Sri Lanka; Karaj, Islamic Republic of Iran; and Yuncheng, China) participated, from January 2002 to October 2005, in a randomized controlled trial to receive either treatment as usual, or treatment as usual plus brief intervention and contact (BIC), which included patient education and follow-up. Overall, 91% completed the study. The primary study outcome measurement was death from suicide at 18-month follow-up.
findingsSignificantly fewer deaths from suicide occurred in the BIC than in the treatment-as-usual group (0.2% versus 2.2%, respectively; chi2 = 13.83, P < 0.001).
conclusionThis low-cost brief intervention may be an important part of suicide prevention programmes for underresourced low- and middle-income countries.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.