The psychological and behavioural treatment of suicidal behaviour

This chapter provides a review of all currently available clinical trials targeting suicidal behaviour. In contrast to some previous available reviews, the focus of the current chapter is on identifying common elements of treatments that work. More specifically, we attempted to answer the question, what do treatments that work have in common? A number of psychological treatments have emerged as effective or potentially effective at reducing suicidal behaviour (i.e. suicide attempts). There now appear to be a number of identifiable core elements for treatments that have proven effective at reducing suicide attempts, all with direct and meaningful implications for day to day clinical practice. We also point out limitations in current science, including problematic follow-up periods and questions about the high-risk nature of some study samples.