The DOI matches its Crossref record; 47 of the 47 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Letters, green cards, telephone calls and postcards: systematic and meta-analytic review of brief contact interventions for reducing self-harm, suicide attempts and suicide.
Open accessAbstract
BACKGROUND: There is growing interest in brief contact interventions for self-harm and suicide attempt. AIMS: To synthesise the evidence regarding the effectiveness of brief contact interventions for reducing self-harm, suicide attempt and suicide. METHOD: A systematic review and random-effects meta-analyses were conducted of randomised controlled trials using brief contact interventions (telephone contacts; emergency or crisis cards; and postcard or letter contacts). Several sensitivity analyses were conducted to examine study quality and subgroup effects. RESULTS: We found 14 eligible studies overall, of which 12 were amenable to meta-analyses. For any subsequent episode of self-harm or suicide attempt, there was a non-significant reduction in the overall pooled odds ratio (OR) of 0.87 (95% CI 0.74-1.04, P = 0119) for intervention compared with control. The number of repetitions per person was significantly reduced in intervention v. control (incidence rate ratio IRR = 066, 95% CI 0.54-0.80, P<0001). There was no significant reduction in the odds of suicide in intervention compared with control (OR = 0.58, 95% CI 0.24-1.38). CONCLUSIONS: A non-significant positive effect on repeated self-harm, suicide attempt and suicide and a significant effect on the number of episodes of repeated self-harm or suicide attempts per person (based on only three studies) means that brief contact interventions cannot yet be recommended for widespread clinical implementation. We recommend further assessment of possible benefits in well-designed trials in clinical populations.
Overview
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.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
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.
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?
In the citing paper
“National suicide prevention best practices recommend that individuals identified as being at risk of suicide receive treatment specifically directed to reduce their risk of suicide and services to ensure they remain engaged in mental health care.6”
In the citing paper
“In contrast to other resource intensive suicide-specific interventions that require a mental health specialist, follow-up interventions are typically brief (6-12 sessions), low cost, nondemand interventions that can be conducted by anyone and occur according to a structured schedule over a designated period (e.g., 1 year).77,78”
From Evidence-based youth suicide prevention and intervention in pediatric primary care settings. (2024) · cites this paper as [77]
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Citations
Cites
Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses: the PRISMA statement
Moher, D., Liberati, A., Tetzlaff, J., Altman, D. G., & for the PRISMA Group (2009) · BMJ · doi:10.1136/bmj.b2535 · Cited by 83,823
Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses: The PRISMA Statement
Moher, D., Liberati, A., Tetzlaff, J., Altman, D. G., & The PRISMA Group (2009) · PLoS Medicine · doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1000097 · Cited by 64,042
Measuring inconsistency in meta-analyses
Higgins, J. P. T., Thompson, S. G., Deeks, J. J., & Altman, D. G. (2003) · BMJ · doi:10.1136/bmj.327.7414.557 · Cited by 63,139
Preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses: the PRISMA Statement.
(2009) · PubMed Central · Cited by 44,859
Meta-analysis in clinical trials
DerSimonian, R., & Laird, N. (1986) · Controlled Clinical Trials · doi:10.1016/0197-2456(86)90046-2 · Cited by 39,552
GRADE: an emerging consensus on rating quality of evidence and strength of recommendations
Guyatt, G. H., Oxman, A. D., Vist, G. E., Kunz, R., Falck-Ytter, Y., Alonso-Coello, P., & Schünemann, H. J. (2008) · BMJ · doi:10.1136/bmj.39489.470347.ad · Cited by 23,305
The world report on violence and health
Krug, E. G., Mercy, J. A., Dahlberg, L. L., & Zwi, A. B. (2002) · The Lancet · doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(02)11133-0 · Cited by 9,110
Cross-national prevalence and risk factors for suicidal ideation, plans and attempts
Nock, M. K., Borges, G., Bromet, E. J., Alonso, J., Angermeyer, M., Beautrais, A., Bruffaerts, R., Chiu, W. T., de Girolamo, G., Gluzman, S., et al. (2008) · British Journal of Psychiatry · doi:10.1192/bjp.bp.107.040113 · Cited by 2,654
International prevalence of adolescent non-suicidal self-injury and deliberate self-harm
Muehlenkamp, J. J., Claes, L., Havertape, L., & Plener, P. L. (2012) · Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health · doi:10.1186/1753-2000-6-10 · Cited by 1,296
Suicide After Deliberate Self-Harm: A 4-Year Cohort Study
Cooper, J., Kapur, N., Webb, R., Lawlor, M., Guthrie, E., Mackway-Jones, K., & Appleby, L. (2005) · American Journal of Psychiatry · doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.162.2.297 · Cited by 690
Research works printed but not linked: 2
- 2012, Self-Harm: Longer-Term Management. National Clinical Guideline Number 133
- van Heerihgen, 1992, The management of non-compliance with outpatient after-care in suicide attempters: a review, Ital J Suicidol, 2, 79
Cited by
Sorted by citations
The Lancet Psychiatry Commission on psychological treatments research in tomorrow's science
Holmes, E. A., Ghaderi, A., Harmer, C. J., Ramchandani, P. G., Cuijpers, P., Morrison, A. P., Roiser, J. P., Bockting, C. L. H., O'Connor, R. C., Shafran, R., et al. (2018) · The Lancet Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/s2215-0366(17)30513-8 · Cited by 624
Suicide Prevention in an Emergency Department Population: The ED-SAFE Study
Miller, I. W., Camargo, C. A., Arias, S. A., Sullivan, A. F., Allen, M. H., Goldstein, A. B., Manton, A. P., Espinola, J. A., Jones, R., Hasegawa, K., et al. (2017) · JAMA Psychiatry · doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2017.0678 · Cited by 418
“Of those participants who completed at least 1 call, the median (IQR) number of completed calls was 6 (2-7).”
BackgroundCarter, G., Milner, A., McGill, K., Pirkis, J., Kapur, N., & Spittal, M. J. (2017) · British Journal of Psychiatry · doi:10.1192/bjp.bp.116.182717 · Cited by 361
Psychosocial interventions following self-harm in adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Hawton, K., Witt, K. G., Salisbury, T. L. T., Arensman, E., Gunnell, D., Hazell, P., Townsend, E., & van Heeringen, K. (2016) · The Lancet Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/s2215-0366(16)30070-0 · Cited by 361
Fox, K. R., Huang, X., Guzmán, E. M., Funsch, K. M., Cha, C. B., Ribeiro, J. D., & Franklin, J. C. (2020) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/bul0000305 · Cited by 351
Metadata
- Authors
- Milner, A. J., Carter, G., Pirkis, J., Robinson, J., & Spittal, M. J.
- Affiliations
- The University of Melbourne (AU)
- Venue
- British Journal of Psychiatry
- Publisher
- Royal College of Psychiatrists
- Published
- 2015-03
- Volume
- 206
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 184-190
- ISSN
- 0007-1250 (ISSN-L)
- 1472-1465
- OpenAlex
- W2123846655
- Cited by
- 211
- References
- 47
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 15 · 2024: 17 · 2023: 19 · 2022: 21 · 2021: 24 · 2020: 17 · 2019: 21 · 2018: 21 · 2017: 22 · 2016: 21 · 2015: 6
- FWCI
- 3.35
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- The British Journal of Psychiatry (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Minerva Access (University of Melbourne) (submittedVersion)
- Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- NOVA (University of Newcastle Australia) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Medical Research Council
- National Health and Medical Research Council (546248)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Suicide and Self-Harm Studies
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Mental Health Treatment and Access
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychiatric care and mental health services
- Keywords
- self-harm, suicide attempts, suicide prevention, telephone-delivered intervention, postcards, intervention effectiveness
- MeSH terms
- Suicide Prevention, Humans, Postal Service, Psychotherapy, Brief, Suicide, Attempted, Telephone, Self-Injurious Behavior
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
