Introduction/Objective: A systematic review of treatment studies of patients who have attempted suicide is being carried out, with the aim to compare the effects of specific treatments (e.g., cognitive-behavioural therapy or psychopharmacological treatment) versus standard types of aftercare (e.g., routine psychiatric assessment) for attempted suicide. Specific objectives were to identify all relevant RCTs and CCTs concerning the treatment of attempted suicide patients, to compare the results of searching different databases, and to determine the methodological quality of the trials.

Methods: A literature search was conducted using the databases Medline: 1966-May 1996, Psyclit: 1974-August 1996, Embase (1980-November 1996), and the Cochrane Controlled Trials Register (CCTR): no. 3, 1996. In addition, 11 journals in the field of psychiatry and psychology were hand searched. All papers were screened according to general aspects, e.g., type of report, country of origin, year of publication, and length of trial. The quality of the papers was rated by two independent reviewers according to the standard Cochrane criteria for quality assessment, and a number of additional criteria.

Results/Discussion: A total of 22 RCTs and 3 CCTs eligible for inclusion in the review were identified by searching the different databases, and by hand searching. Overall, considerable agreement was found in terms of the number of trials identified by searching the electronic databases Medline, Psyclit, and Embase. From the trials identified by hand searching (n=22), only 18% (n=4) were not identified by Medline. The majority of the papers were published in the period 1985-1996. Further results will be presented at the Colloquium.