CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 65Suicide and Self-Harm StudiesMental Health Research TopicsMental Health via Writing

Coping strategies that reduce suicidal ideation: an ecological momentary assessment study

Open access
Stanley, Barbara, Martínez-Alés, Gonzalo, Gratch, Ilana, Rizk, Mina, Galfalvy, Hanga, Choo, Tse-Hwei, Mann, J. John·2021·Journal of Psychiatric Research
DOI 10.1016/j.jpsychires.2020.12.012PMC PMC8659118
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

Background While suicide-specific psychosocial interventions often teach coping skills to suicidal individuals, little is known about the strategies that individuals intuitively use on their own to cope with suicidal ideation in everyday life.Aims The present study used Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) to examine the effectiveness of specific coping strategies individuals use naturally to reduce the intensity of suicidal thinking.Method Fifty participants endorsing suicidal ideation with co-morbid mood disorder and borderline personality disorder completed one week of EMA. Real-time use, perceived effectiveness of 7 common coping strategies and intensity of suicidal ideation were assessed at 6 epochs (i.e., timepoints) each day.Results Participants reported using an average of 4 coping strategies per epoch. Factor analysis (FA) (exploratory followed by confirmatory FA) identified two coping factors: one that included distraction/positive activity-based strategies (i.e., keeping busy, socializing, positive thinking, and doing something good for self) and a second that contained mindfulness-oriented strategies (i.e., finding perspective, calming self, and sitting with feelings until they pass). Although participants perceived all coping strategies as effective, only strategies in the first factor, distraction/positive activity-oriented strategies, lowered the intensity of suicidal thoughts in everyday life. Furthermore, baseline suicidal ideation was inversely related to overall use of coping strategies and particularly use of coping strategies that were found to lead to lowered suicidal ideation.Conclusions Distraction/positive activity based strategies are helpful in decreasing suicidal ideation in the short-term. These findings can help clinicians advise patients about strategies to use to cope with suicidal thoughts to prevent acting on them in a crisis and they also have the potential to inform development of psychosocial interventions to prevent suicide.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1016/j.jpsychires.2020.12.012

Cites

40 of 40 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

2 of the 42 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Research works printed but not linked: 2

  1. First MB, Benjamin LS, Gibbon M, Spitzer RL, & Williams JB (1997). Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis II Personality Disorders. American Psychiatric Press.
  2. First MB, Spitzer RL, Gibbon M, & Williams JB (2002). Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV-TR Axis I Disorders. Research Version (Patient Edition. (SCID-I/P). Biometrics Research.

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Related

Authors
Stanley, B., Martínez-Alés, G., Gratch, I., Rizk, M., Galfalvy, H., Choo, T.-H., & Mann, J. J.
Affiliations
  • Columbia University Irving Medical Center (US)
  • New York State Psychiatric Institute (US)
ORCID
Venue
Journal of Psychiatric Research
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2021-01
Volume
133
Pages
32-37
ISSN
0022-3956 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1016/j.jpsychires.2020.12.012
PMC
PMC8659118
OpenAlex
W3107799876
Cited by
65
References
42
Citations by year
2026: 11 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 23 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 14 · 2021: 1
FWCI
1.99
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Journal of Psychiatric Research (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
Funders
National Institute of Mental Health (2P50MH090964, R01MH109326, R01MH61017)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Suicide and Self-Harm Studies
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Mental Health Research Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Mental Health via Writing
Keywords
suicidal ideation, coping strategies, distraction techniques, positive activities, mindfulness, borderline personality disorder, mood disorders, suicide prevention, psychosocial interventions, self-regulation
MeSH terms
Ecological Momentary Assessment, Suicide Prevention, Adaptation, Psychological, Emotions, Humans, Suicidal Ideation

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review