Introducing the suicide prevention trials database: A publicly available data repository of suicide prevention studies.

Abstract

Background: Healthcare, research, policy, and legislative stakeholders need timely, accurate, and detailed information on the effectiveness and potential harms of suicide prevention approaches. We created the Suicide Prevention Trials Database (SPTD) to provide a centralized, publicly accessible, detailed database of harmonized study-level suicide prevention clinical trial data.

Methods: We searched for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of suicide prevention published from 1980 to 2023. Over 300 data variables were extracted from each RCT.

Results: We identified a total of 140 unique RCTs in 180 articles. Most of the included RCTs compared two treatment arms (92%), and the remainder compared three arms (88%). Nearly half of the RCTs reported on Behavioral Interventions (49%), followed by Care Management, Follow-up, or Monitoring (16%). Typically, the comparator condition was Treatment as Usual (53%). Interventions were most often delivered in person (61%) in an individual format (79%).

Conclusions: The SPTD provides efficient, accurate, up-to-date access to a comprehensive suicide prevention trials database, which can be utilized by a range of stakeholders. It can reduce the time required for high-quality systematic reviews and provides researchers, administrators, and funders with current data on the state of the literature.