Efficacy of brief telephone psychotherapy with callers to a suicide hotline.
Abstract
The efficacy of two types of theapy conducted exclusively over the telephone was studied. Clients (N=55) were recruited from a pool of callers to a suicide hotline and were randomly assigned to a waiting list control (WC) or Solution Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT) or Common Factors Therapy (CFT). It was hypothesized that improvements would be significantly higher in the two therapy conditions compared to the waitlist control and SFBT would be significantly more efficacious than CFT. Results confirmed that improvement was significantly higher in the two treatment conditions compared to the waitlist control, but no difference in improvement was found between SFBT and CFT. The implications of these findings for suicide hotlines are discussed.
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Intervention completion rates were lower in this study relative to some other trials of web-based treatments for depression but not of other telephone-based services.
“Intervention completion rates were lower in our study relative to some other trials of web-based treatments for depression [47] but not of other telephone-based services [48].”
From Internet-Based CBT for Depression with and without Telephone Tracking in a National Helpline: Randomised Controlled Trial (2011) · cites this paper as [48]
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- Authors
- Rhee, W. K., Merbaum, M., Strube, M. J., & Self, S. M.
- Affiliations
- Washington University in St. Louis (US)
- Corresponding author
- Merbaum, Michael
- ORCID
- Strube, Michael J.
- Venue
- Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2005-06
- Volume
- 35
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 317-328
- ISSN
- 0363-0234 (ISSN-L)
- 1943-278X
- OpenAlex
- W2112633660
- Cited by
- 40
- References
- 22
- Citations by year
- 2025: 1 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 1 · 2020: 1 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 3 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 3 · 2015: 1 · 2014: 2 · 2013: 4 · 2012: 2
- FWCI
- 3.09
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Suicide and Self-Harm Studies
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Counseling, Therapy, and Family Dynamics
- Keywords
- suicide hotline, telephone psychotherapy, solution-focused therapy, suicide prevention, treatment efficacy, brief psychotherapy
- MeSH terms
- Suicide Prevention, Adult, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Psychotherapy, Brief, Suicide, Telephone, Waiting Lists, Hotlines, Treatment Outcome
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