General practitioner training in youth suicide prevention: a systematic review

Youth suicidality is the second-leading cause of death among youth globally. General Practitioners (GP) are established gatekeepers for the early identification and intervention of youth suicidal behaviours, therefore training GPs in youth suicide prevention is essential. Increasing youth-specific suicide prevention training which is sensitive to youths' unique developmental needs and risk factors is vital. The present systematic review synthesised available evidence on the youth-specific suicide prevention training received by GPs in line with PRISMA recommendations and provides a quality evaluation of the included studies. Nine quantitative studies were included. Search strategy and keywords are outlined in detail to enhance reproducibility. Covidence software was employed to screen and extract data, and a narrative synthesis was applied. Two reviewers screened all studies reaching 96% inter-rater agreement. Quality appraisal was guided by the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT). GP training in youth suicide prevention increased GP knowledge, confidence and detection rates of youth suicide. Mean training length was 6.2 hours (range 10 min to 3 days). Interactive and applied learning methods were most rated as useful. GP training and education programs in youth suicide prevention are being rolled out on a global basis, however limited research is evaluating the efficacy of these training programs, which limits the ability of trainers and researchers to monitor and revise GP training programs. Future research should include designs such as randomised controlled trials and qualitative studies.