Abstract
The World Health Organization Suicide trends in at-risk territories study is a multi-site regional research program operating first in French Polynesia and countries of the Western Pacific, then extended to the world. The aims of the study were to establish a monitoring system for suicidal behaviors and to conduct a randomised control trial intervention for non-fatal suicidal behaviors. The latter part is the purpose of the present article. Over the period 2008-2010, 515 patients were admitted at the Emergency Department of the Centre Hospitalier de Polynésie Française for suicidal behavior. Those then hospitalized in the Psychiatry Emergency Unit were asked to be involved in the study and randomly allocated to either Treatment As Usual (TAU) or TAU plus Brief Intervention and Contact (BIC), which provides a psycho-education session and a follow-up of 9 phone contacts over an 18-months period. One hundred persons were assigned to TAU, while 100 participants were allocated to the BIC group. At the end of the follow-up there were no significant differences between the two groups in terms of number of presentations to the hospital for repeated suicidal behaviors. Although the study could not demonstrate the superiority of a treatment over the other, nevertheless – given its importance – the investigation captured public attention and was able to contribute to the awareness of the need of suicide prevention in French Polynesia. The BIC model of intervention seemed to particularly suit the geographical and health care context of the country.
Highlights
The Western Pacific region contains a diverse range of countries that differ in terms of culture, population size, and health care facilities.[1]
While its main features have been described elsewhere,[22] This paper presents the results of the Component Two, a randomised control intervention performed on suicidal individuals of French Polynesia, comparing treatment as usual (TAU) with treatment as usual plus Brief Intervention and Contact (BIC)
There was no statistical difference in the frequency of suicidal behavior between Treatment As Usual (TAU)+BIC and TAU only groups (Table 3)
Summary
The Western Pacific region contains a diverse range of countries that differ in terms of culture, population size, and health care facilities.[1]. Increased suicide rates have elicited a number of suicide prevention activities moduled around the geographical and socio-cultural context of the country.[5] With regards to non-fatal suicidal behavior, one of the strategies suggested to mitigate the risk of recurrance is reinforcement of social support by maintaining long-term contact with suicidal individuals. Several studies suggest that regular contact with patients may help to reduce both deaths due to suicide and repetition of suicide attempts.[6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17] Other investigations fail to show any effects on either deaths due to suicide,[15] or suicide attempt repetitions.[19,20] It has been hypothesized that strategies improving social connectedness might be pertinent in the context of isolated Pacific islands.[21]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
