Evidence map›Paper›PMID 38083861›Full record

Trial reportThe British journal of psychiatry : the journal of mental science2024

Efficacy of a short message service brief contact intervention (SMS-SOS) in reducing repetition of hospital-treated self-harm: randomised controlled trial.

Garry John Stevens, Sandro Sperandei, Gregory Leigh Carter, Sithum Munasinghe, Trent Ernest Hammond, Naren Gunja, Anabel de la Riva, Vlasios Brakoulias, Andrew Page

Open access · hybridAbstract readRandomized Controlled Trial
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Trial report in The British journal of psychiatry : the journal of mental science, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
7citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
2.5field-weighted citation impact, top 11% of its field
1 · What the graph read from 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.

2 · The registry

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.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

7 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 8 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Trial
  3. Observational
  4. Caring contact SMS text messages following suicidal behaviour.Australasian psychiatry : bulletin of Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists · 2026
    Article
  5. Article
  6. Article
  7. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

9 authors at 5 institutions in 1 country.

Garry John StevensSchool of Social Sciences, Western Sydney University, Penrith, New South Wales, Australia.ORCID 0000-0002-3556-4098
Sandro SperandeiTranslational Health Research Institute, Western Sydney University, Penrith, New South Wales, Australia.ORCID 0000-0001-5367-3397
Gregory Leigh CarterSchool of Medicine and Public Health, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, New South Wales, Australia.ORCID 0000-0001-8180-1798
Sithum MunasingheTranslational Health Research Institute, Western Sydney University, Penrith, New South Wales, Australia.ORCID 0000-0003-3650-1889
Trent Ernest HammondNepean Clinical School, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney, Penrith, New South Wales, Australia.ORCID 0000-0002-5341-6531
Naren GunjaWestmead Clinical School, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney, Westmead, New South Wales, Australia; and Emergency Department, Westmead Hospital, Westmead, New South Wales, Australia.ORCID 0000-0002-8323-9388
Anabel de la RivaWestmead Hospital, Western Sydney Local Health District, Westmead, New South Wales, Australia.ORCID 0009-0003-9920-0263
Vlasios BrakouliasNepean Clinical School, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney, Penrith, New South Wales, Australia.ORCID 0000-0002-4188-4370
Andrew PageTranslational Health Research Institute, Western Sydney University, Penrith, New South Wales, Australia.ORCID 0000-0002-6694-6689
The University of Sydney · AUTranslational Research Institute · AUUniversity of Newcastle Australia · AUWestern Sydney University · AUWestmead Hospital · AU

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundHospital-treated self-harm is common and costly, and is associated with repeated self-harm and suicide.

aimsTo 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.

methodA 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) (

resultsThe 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.

conclusionsThe 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.

Indexed as

Self-Injurious BehaviorSuicideText MessagingAustraliaHospitalsHumansaftercareout-patient treatmentpreventionrandomised controlled trialSelf-harm

Identifiers

PMID38083861
PMCPMC10884824
OpenAlexW4389707477

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

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.