Efficacy of individual and group problem-solving therapy in treating psychiatric patients who attempted suicide: a randomized controlled trial*

This study tested the comparative efficacy of individual and group problem-solving therapy (PST) in psychiatric outpatients who have attempted suicide in a randomized controlled trial. The sample consisted of 39 Turkish adults admitted to psychiatric units due to a suicide attempt who were randomly assigned to an individual (indPST) and a group (grPST) and a waiting-list control condition (13 participants in each group). Participants responded first to sociodemographic questions; then they filled in a Suicide Probability Scale, a Beck Depression Inventory, a Hamilton Depression Rating Scale, a Revised Social Problem Solving Inventory-Short Form, and a Cognitive Flexibility Inventory before and after the intervention or waiting period. Participants enrolled in the two PST conditions filled in the measures three months after the end of the intervention for follow-up. We employed a repeated measures analysis of variance procedure to analyze the data and calculated the effect sizes using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences 20.0 (SPSS). The findings showed that the efficacy of the indPST and grPST was comparable. While the suicide probability and depression scale scores of participants in the two PST conditions decreased, their cognitive flexibility and social problem-solving scores increased significantly after the intervention. The changes correspond to large effect sizes. However, the scale scores of participants within the waiting list control condition were unchanged. The improvements gained within the PST conditions were maintained at three three-month follow-ups. We conclude that the individual and group PST may equally be efficacious for treating suicidal psychiatric patients.