- Title
- Efficacy of a short message service brief contact intervention (SMS-SOS) in reducing repetition of hospital-treated self-harm: randomised controlled trial
- Creator
- Stevens, Garry John; Sperandei, Sandro; Carter, Gregory Leigh; Munasinghe, Sithum; Hammond, Trent Ernest; Gunja, Naren; de la Riva, Anabel; Brakoulias, Vlasios; Page, Andrew
- Relation
- British Journal of Psychiatry Vol. 224, Issue 3, p. 106-113
- Publisher Link
- http://dx.doi.org/10.1192/bjp.2023.152
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2024
- Description
- Background: Hospital-treated self-harm is common and costly, and is associated with repeated self-harm and suicide. Aims: 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: 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) (n = 431) or an intervention condition of nine automated SMS contacts (plus TAU) (n = 373), over 12 months following the index self-harm episode. The primary outcomes were (a) repeat self-harm event rate (number of self-harm events per person per year) at 6-, 12- and 24-month follow-up and (b) the time to first repeat at 24-month follow-up. 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: 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.
- Subject
- self-harm; aftercare; prevention; out-patient treatment; randomised controlled trial; SDG 3; Sustainable Development Goals
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1504527
- Identifier
- uon:55545
- Identifier
- ISSN:0007-1250
- Rights
- x
- Language
- eng
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